Someone Else
by WyronX22
Summary: There's a new Vault Hunter in town, and he's hell-bent on finding the most elusive Vault on Pandora – before his rival can do the same. He has powers to achieve his goals, but at what cost? If only the Gemini Corporation weren't so conniving…
1. Critical Ascension

**ALERT: This is actually my first story on this website, although it isn't my first fanfiction in general. I enjoy writing, whatever. Honestly, I know introducing a new Vault Hunter isn't** ** _exactly_** **all that new, but the story generally is. A new Vault, yes, that sounds uninspired, but what the Vault turns out to be is entirely my own creation. And how the Vault works I think is fairly unique. You'll find out later.**

 **ALERT: I'm also a giant nerd, so of course I have tried to do as much research about what I'm describing on Pandora, as well as the characters. I played the shit out of Borderlands 2, so I know all the maps - and there's also the DLC and Borderlands 1 too - but I felt like proper research had to be done anyway to stay accurate. I hope I get all the Vault Hunters' personalities right, because it would honestly suck if the way I portray them is nothing like their in-universe counterparts.**

 **Additionally, I decided to do this since I am so excited for Borderlands 3, which I'm pretty sure has been confirmed at this point. Maybe this'll build hype, I honestly don't know.**

 **Side note: this takes place between BL2 and Tales from the Borderlands. So Helios hasn't crashed down to Pandora yet, and Hyperion still has prominent power over the planet, too.**

 **! EXTRA NOTE (12th March 2019): The sequel to this story, No One Else, has been uploaded. Chapter 36 of _this_ story is a prequel to that.**

* * *

 ** ** ** ** **Chapter One: Critical Ascension**********

* * *

He breathed a gruff breath, surveying the surroundings through his sniper. He didn't like Pandora. The disorder and chaos was everywhere, and safety was not known for here. He recently arrived on this continent of the planet, and so far, it had not been better than anywhere else.

The Highlands was a grassy domain, reminding him of farmland. He looked across the plain from on top of a large hill. He could see the tunnel that went through a hill and lead out next to Overlook, just above Blake's Bridge.

He shuddered slightly when a cold breeze passed over him. The young man wore a dark midnight coat, which had armour attached the shoulder blades. Underneath it was a navy blue shirt, covered in an exoskeleton of armour plating, only pausing over his arms. He was almost invisible in the evening night.

Matt could see the Stalkers lurking nearby, their natural shield not currently blanketing them, as no threat was in sight. He focussed carefully through his sniper rifle. The rifle was Legendary, the Volcano, indicating its incendiary nature. It was rare that he hunted Stalkers.

He fired at the head of one of the Stalkers, killing it instantly. The others immediately disappeared, but Matt wasn't distracted. He paid attention to the impressions in the sand created by the Stalkers, and aimed for where the heads would be. Matt killed them in rapid succession, smiling at his handiwork. He could see the money and ammunition that had dropped from the Stalkers; Matt wondered whether or not it was a good idea to take their loot.

There had been once or twice when he had encountered and enraged further Stalkers when he took the money. His ECHO device told him that his account balance was well more than adequate, but no other Stalkers – or anything hostile for that matter – were present or nearby. He ran a manual scan to check, and it appeared that nothing was hiding.

Matt was wrong.

Behind him appeared a Badass Pyro Thresher, which Matt had little time to react to, before he was thrown off the hill by the Thresher and unto the tarmac road. He didn't have time to be disorientated, not when he was in danger.

He pulled out a Legendary Veruc assault rifle. His was non-elemental, but any element would not help too much against this Pyro Thresher, and its spread of bullets would reach the eyes of the Thresher easily enough. He began firing.

The Thresher's tentacles hurled fireballs at him, occasionally hitting him and burning through his shield. Matt's fall made it much harder for him to dodge them, not to mention he was focussing on the eyes of the thresher. He eyed the bar of the creature as it went down.

'Son of a…' Matt susurrated under his breath, as his shield was completely depleted. His health was whittling down now, but so was the Thresher's. In a second, one of them would be dead.

With a loud, audible roar, the Badass Pyro Thresher finally collapsed onto the ground, sinking underground. Matt breathed a sigh of relief, happy over the kill. He knew he couldn't be so reckless again. Carefully, Matt limped over to the dead Stalkers, noticing his incredibly low vitals. He would need a hypo soon.

Taking out a knife, he cut off a section of the tail of each of the five Stalkers. While he didn't enjoy the forced cruelty, even though they _were_ dead, it was not his own decision. Quickly, the hunter threw them into his ECHO storage and labelled them "temporary". Without much thought, he limped over to and through the tunnel. Overlook wasn't much further.

* * *

With a smile on his face, Matt Rye slammed down the severed tails of five Stalkers onto the tray protruding from the door. He was already feeling the life-giving effects of the hypo. Karima's face flashed on the hologram projector fitted onto the door.

'M-many thanks, Matt,' she stuttered out. 'This'll c-certainly help Overlook.'

'Skull-Shivers still clearing up then?' He asked considerately.

'Y-yes,' she admitted. 'But they're…they're getting better.'

'Great,' he replied. 'What did you need from these Stalkers again?'

'If ca-can understand how these Stalkers cloak, I may be able to do the s-same to Overlook's shield.'

'I see,' Matt responded, looking towards the Hyperion Base known as Helios, which blocked out most of the moon. He often wished it would get kicked out of the sky someday, for the safety of everyone on Pandora. 'Helios won't be able to target you when you're cloaked, but it may take a lot out of your town's battery.'

'The shield is s-self-sustaining,' Karima told him.

'Since when?'

'Some people helped me out,' she responded. 'The s-same people who helped me put up the shield.'

'Cool,' Matt said. He turned around, beginning to walk away. He stopped for a few seconds, and turned back to the door, where her face was still being projected in front. 'Call me if you need me. I'll be on the ECHOnet.'

'S-see you around M-Matt,' Karima called back. Her face disappeared, and the projector turned off. Matt strolled towards the exit of Overlook, humming a pleasant tune to no one in particular. He took notice of the Holy Spirits bar, and decided he was in need of a drink.

Just one.

He walked into the bar, greeted by many of the Zaford grunts and other regulars to the bar. He sat himself down by the counter, as Mick Zaford walked up to him.

'Lovely to see ya again, me laddie!' He exclaimed. 'Lemme pour you a drink.' He walked over to the tap that linked to the distillery. Beer began rushing out. 'Can't thank ye enough for repairing our distillery. We're completely back in business!'

'It's no problem, Mick. I like your beer, so, I thought it would worth it to get your distillery back after the Hodunks apparently destroyed it.'

'Ye doing me a good service boyo,' Mick added, giving him a pat on the back as he gave him his beer. 'Stiff, as you like it.' Matt nodded appreciatively, taking a sizeable gulp from his beer. He relished in the taste of it.

Beer was something he didn't have too often, but it was undeniable that the Zafords' beer was excellent, which was why he would come here every so often since he arrived on this part of Pandora.

His ECHO gave off a ringtone only heard by Matt, indicating he was being called. He excused himself for a few moments to respond, finding somewhat privacy in the bathroom. He answered.

'You know the threat that lies ahead of you,' Matt retold him. 'What was the usefulness of calling me?'

'That Vault is mine,' the voice replied. 'And I'm going to get to it first.'

'You don't even know where it is Caine,' he reminded him.

'Do you really think it's going to be that hard to find it?' Caine argued. 'My Vault Instincts will lead me closer every day.'

'What's your point?' Matt replied. 'You think I won't be able to do the same?'

'Good luck with that, kiddo.' Caine hung up the call.

 _That was short,_ he thought.

Matt walked back into the bar room and sat back down, finishing his beer.

He knew he would have to get to this Vault soon. There had been two located specific to this continent, and the only he knew of: the Vault of the Warrior, and the Vault of the Destroyer. There was also the Vault of the Sentinel on Elpis. He had heard tales of the Vault Hunters who found them, but Caine and the rest of the Gemini Corporation had told him they were long gone.

This was something he believed, but weakly. Gemini had not really lied to him before, but there was a first time for everything.

He was not sure what the Guardian of the particular Vault would be, but it definitely was not going to be good. There was not much information on it, only that the Guardian did not possess too similar qualities compared to the latter – which did not make the thought of taking it on any easier.

Given that he was Matt Rye the Anomaly, things being abnormal and different weren't exactly anything new.

'You okay boyo?' Mick Zaford walked back up to him. 'I saw you duck away.'

'I had to take an ECHO call,' Matt responded. 'It's nothing.'

'Aye,' Zaford expressed. 'It seems as though ye are busy, boyo.'

'A little,' he admitted. 'But I still like to stop at my favourite bar.' Matt smiled, and Mick returned it. He slapped him on the back.

'That's my boy!' Mick exclaimed, despite Matt not actually being his boy. Matt winced at the slap on the back, it having hit the bruise that the Badass Thresher had given him.

'Thanks, but I think I'll be off.' Mick bid him farewell, and Matt stepped out of the Holy Spirits bar, taking in the fresh air. He walked out towards the Catch-A-Ride, near Hunter's Bane.

'This is the place to catch a ride!' The machine yelled at him. 'Welcome to the New and Improved Catch-A-Ride, now with 47% more than 26% death annually! _That_ is down from last year, _hold your applause_!'

He pressed a few buttons, and soon a Catch-A-Ride vehicle was digistructed just beside him. He climbed in and got ready to drive, but was interrupted by a loud scream of pain coming from the Stalker's nest. Except, it did not sound like it was Stalkers who'd attacked some poor guy who had taken a few wrong steps. He could hear the inane yells from a Psycho.

'Bring me a bucket and I'll show you a bucket!' One of them roared. Matt could hear the buzzaxe cut through the air. Bandits weren't common around here; he had to see what was going on.

'Finally some murdering!'

 _Great. There's at least one marauder._

'Throw grenade!'

 _And a nomad._

'What a dumbass order…'

Upon looking over the nest, he could observe the Stalker corpses he had killed earlier, complete with their severed tails. And a lot of bandits. They were circling this girl around this corner. She had red hair and wore rather unkempt clothing. He wasn't paying attention to her – the bandits were the problem.

He jumped down.

'Why are you here?' A Golliath wondered.

'This ain't no place for no hero,' Matt muttered, before holding out his hand. Red energy swirled around it, and time seemed to slow down. Bullets flying through the air slowed down, the buzzaxes from psychos stopped in the air, and the bandits themselves slowed in their charge. Time had slowed. But not for Matt.

He walked around each bandit, shooting the first few Marauders in the head, killing them by firmly pressing it against them. Matt then calmly picked up one of the Psychos' axes from the air, and bludgeoned the remaining three Psychos to death before they could react. He then took the one Nomad's own gun, and smacked him across the face with it, the whiplash killing him instantly. The one Golliath was quickly disposed of using his own helmet.

With the final two Marauders left – a normal and an Elite – he snapped their necks, watching them very slowly begin to slump to the ground. Matt finally then caught the bullets flying through the air and dropped them to the ground, enjoying how they would slow as soon as they would exit his hands.

It was his ability: Chronokinesis.

He believed he had caught all the bullets, but he was wrong on that aspect. Matt saw one final bullet, getting ready to hit the girl that the bandits had assaulted. Feeling time begin to speed up, he ran to the final bullet, catching it moments before it would hit her.

Time returned to normal.

Seeing how he had caught the bullet millimetres away from the girl's eye, Matt breathed a large sigh of relief.

'Are you OK?' He examined her. She was stunned by what she just saw, but was broken from her trance as she winced, and cried out in pain. Matt turned somewhat grim.

She touched the back of her leg, on the side, and revealed that a large piece of shrapnel had wedged into it. Blood was profusely seeping from the wound. Matt ran over to her, inspecting the wound.

'This is going to take more than a few hypos,' he told her. He pulled out some spare hypos, and jabbed them into her, near the wound. 'That should sooth the pain.' Matt calmly then pulled out the shrapnel from out of her. Luckily, the anaesthetic had had its quick effect, and it didn't seem to hurt for her.

'Thanks,' the girl responded.

'How'd this happen?' Matt probed her. 'The shrapnel and the bandits being here.'

'I may have led them here from The Dust,' she admitted. 'They followed me with some Bandit Technicals, which then blew up.'

'I see,' Matt responded, paying close attention to the wound. He pulled out a bandage, and wrapped it around the injury, which was not as bleeding as much as before thanks to the hypos. 'You shouldn't need a metal leg too now.' The girl laughed, and he smiled back.

'Thanks for helping me,' she acknowledged.

'It's no problem,' he said. 'I'm Matt by the way.' He stepped back from the bandage, smiling upon realizing it had worked.

'Gaige,' the girl responded.

'That's a nice name,' Matt responded. Gaige smiled.

Then he noticed.

Unmistakably, on the girl's belt was a Vault symbol. He hadn't noticed before because he wasn't paying attention to it that much. His eyes widened and he stepped back a bit.

'You-you're a Vault Hunter?' He stuttered, astounded. Gaige looked at her belt, realising he had surmised it from the badge.

She looked at him with confusion.

'Yeah, so?' Matt took off his black coat and pulled up the sleeve of his navy blue shirt, revealing a tattoo of a Vault symbol placed just by the joint that connected his Ulna to the Humerus.

'I was told that all Vault Hunters that were on this planet before me were dead.'

'Who told you that?' She asked him.

'The Gemini Corporation,' Matt answered honestly. To him Vault Hunters could be mostly trusted. Apart from Caine. 'That was what they told me before I left them. I had a feeling it wasn't true.'

'I haven't heard of 'em,' Gaige admitted. 'Were they the ones who gave you that… _ability?'_

'No,' Matt responded. 'That was from Hyperion experimentation.' The bitterness in his voice towards Hyperion was evident. Gaige was not surprised that he hated Hyperion. Almost everyone did. 'It's the ability to slow down time around me. It helps me react faster than others, and gives me time to think.'

'Cool.'

'How come you weren't defending yourself?' Matt wondered additionally. 'Aren't all Vault Hunters badasses?'

'Well, Matt, you would be correct on that!' Gaige exclaimed. 'I can summon this robot called Deathtrap from my gauntlet. Some handy digistruction technology. But right now, it's repairing itself.'

'That's pretty cool,' Matt admitted. 'Are there any other Vault Hunters around? I need to meet them.'

'You heard of Sanctuary?' Gaige asked him.

'I thought that was just the stronghold of the resistance, not that Vault Hunters resided there,' he admitted. 'I never went because I am busy searching for a Vault.'

'What Vault?' She enquired.

'I'm not certain, but I have this software called Vault Instincts that tell me it's definitely on this continent,' He replied. 'Once I meet these friends of yours, I might be able to fill you in further.'

'Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Matt,' Gaige smiled warmly, extending out a hand. The Anomaly took it.

'Likewise,' he agreed. 'You know, these Stalker piles are giving off an especially foul scent. I don't suppose we can get to Sanctuary now? I haven't been on a Dahl Mining Ship before.'

'Not to worry!' Gaige eased, 'The fast travel will take us there. Luckily, I have access to the location – very few people do.' She was limping a little from the wound, and she stumbled, and would have fallen over if Matt hadn't caught her.

'Hold on to me,' he advised. 'The fast travel should not be too far.'

She nodded, grabbing onto his coat shoulder. They began walking up back to Overlook, fully weary of the threats that may lie ahead.

Matt was still annoyed at himself for his recklessness earlier with the Badass Pyro Thresher. He had gotten lucky in the ordeal, and his Chronokinesis had slightly aided in the dodging of the Thresher's inferno projectiles. Fortunately, the disorientation had completely evaporated, but his confidence had taken a minor blow still. Most if it had returned following his takeout of those bandits.

He kept telling himself that Pandora wasn't a place for heroes, but even Matt's own instincts outwardly disagreed with that, as he decided to save this girl, Gaige, without even realising she was a Vault Hunter. Equally, it was refreshing that Caine had not found her or any of the others before he did.

Caine was master of manipulation.

He could lead almost anyone to do what he wanted. His heart was colder than Three Horns Divide, and was more heartless than a Bullymong. Caine knew just what to say to throw people in the deep end, and Gaige seemed innocent enough to fall for it.

Hopefully they wouldn't meet.

He knew Caine still worked for Gemini, and was annoyed that Matt didn't anymore. With Hyperion's endless experiments on his body, Gemini wasn't for him anymore. Just because they liked to employ Vault Hunters from across the galaxy, didn't mean that he would have to continue being under their line of work.

'What did you mean by "this ain't no place for no hero?"?' Gaige suddenly catechized, as they passed Holy Spirits. She seemed to have read his mind with that question.

'I wasn't sure whether I should save you at the time,' Matt admitted. 'You can see I decided against leaving you to die. I muttered it because I was reminding myself that in the eyes of the Gemini Corporation, I am _no_ hero.'

'Well, whoever these _Gemini_ people are, it sounds like they got you totally wrong.'

'In the eyes of Handsome Jack, you all got Hyperion completely wrong,' Matt paused. 'And we all know how much of an asshole he was.'

'I'm pretty perceptive really,' Gaige told him.

 _Not against Caine,_ Matt contemplated. _Hopefully I can get to the Vault before he does. Either way, that son of a bitch is going down. He's no Vault Hunter in my eyes; Caine is a ruthless killer._

'Well, thanks anyway,' he finally accepted the compliment.

At last, they made it to the fast travel. Gaige began punching into the interface, granting Matt access to Sanctuary in the process. She stepped back for a moment to allow the machine to scan him, before returning to attending to the UI.

'You know, I think Axton's going to like you,' she admitted.

Axton? He knew that name. _Oh boy, this won't be good._

'Wait, Axton?' Matt stopped in confusion. 'Axton's in-' He leant out his hand and placed it on her shoulder.

He was cut off by the initialisation of the travel. In moments, he would be on the same ship as a presumed-dead.

* * *

 **Ooh, a twist! Anyway, that's the first chapter,** ** _Critical Ascension._** **Yes, I will be naming pretty much all of these chapters after a character skill from BL2, but the name will always to be relevant to what happens in the chapter, so it isn't random.**

 **Also, yes, he (I) really _did_ reference _Short Change Hero_ , and he does this at least once more in the story later on. Most of the time it'll be ambiguous talk from Matt. It might seem cringy, so um...sorry about that.**


	2. Converge

**Foreword: So it goes! I'm sorry about any potential grammar mistakes, because that's purely my fault. I know I should probably go back and export-replace them to fix them, but they aren't too major. I'll probably do that if there are glaring errors that make the story confusing, or plot holes that mean the story itself has to be rewritten.**

 **ALERT: It would also be cool to know everyone's opinions on this so far – because honestly it could be shit and I wouldn't even realise – although it's not like I'm expecting thousands of people to take interest on this and write a review or anything. I mean, I did just post it…**

 **Anyways, I suppose the continuation to Someone Else is here! (If that matters at all, haha)**

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Converge**

* * *

'-Sanctuary?' Matt finished, as they materialised in Sanctuary.

'You know the guy?' Gaige supposed. 'Were you friends?'

'Friends?' He enquired, sounding dumbfounded by the question, as though there was an element of stupidity in it. 'We were like brothers.' She nodded happily at that statement, not aware that Matt had intentionally used the past tense in that sentence.

The girl led him towards Crimson Raider HQ, and Matt was quickly beginning to worry that Axton was there. He wasn't afraid of the Commando; Matt was more worried about how the dude would react upon seeing him again in years. What happened was supposed to stay between them both, but with Axton's cockiness, it may just slip out.

The door opened, and visibly, there was Patricia Tannis standing at her desk, talking into another ECHO recorder. Her usual way of speaking didn't affect Matt too much – he had worked with mad scientists before.

'As shown on Hyperion Test Subject C, it may in fact be possible to gain resistance to slag through profuse experimentation at the expense of draining Eridium Blight of its slag, although it may not seem altogether negative or brash to do so,' Tannis seemed to be finishing up her recording. 'It does not appear to me that the remaining Hyperion forces seem to mind, although the demands of Test Subject C to let him go so he can rip my lungs out seem to have become a regular irritation.' She paused, and stopped the recording momentarily. 'Gaige, why do you _insist_ on bringing in strays to my workplace?' Gaige took on a look of extreme offense.

'Matt is not a stray!' She yelled back at her, weary that her friends above her may hear that. 'Is this how you treat Vault Hunters, huh?'

'My apologies,' Tannis apologised, although not sounding too sorry. 'Vault Hunters are people who I hold up to the highest regard, I assure you.'

'Trust me, she's being sincere,' Gaige guaranteed.

'Don't worry, it's OK,' Matt replied. 'Mad scientists are not uncommon for me.'

 _Especially Hyperion._ He added in his head, but refused to say out loud.

Gaige was surprised he wasn't offended, but she assumed that the Gemini Corporation had a lot of mad scientists when he worked for them. She led him back upstairs and away from the mutters of Tannis about how Test Subject C kept annoyingly choking on the slag she was administering, noting that slag experimentation was only justified on Hyperion test subjects.

She took centre stage, announcing to the group while simultaneously pleased that everyone was present. Especially Axton.

'So peoples!' she announced. Matt kept behind her. 'It's that time again! You'll never believe who I found out in the Highlands!'

'Someone who's worth our time?' Bluntly said an evidently fiery redhead with blue tattoos.

A Siren.

'A Vault Hunter!' Gaige exclaimed.

'What?' Said everyone else, in both excitement and confusion. Gaige brought Matt out, making him feel marginally nervous.

'Hi…I'm Matt,' he nervously told them. 'They call me the Anomaly.'

'And for good reason too,' said a voice. Axton stepped out from beside the wall and looked straight at him. 'What are you doing here, Matt?' He ignored the question.

'Calm down, compañero,' said a small dwarf with bulging muscles. He had clearly noticed the anger in Axton's voice.

'Calm down?' Axton took the request as a ridiculous idea. 'Why are you here, Matt? Has Gemini paid you enough to come after me?' Even Gaige was confused, and Matt certainly did not like how an especially muscly man in a black leather jacket began cracking his knuckles in the back of the room.

'I'm not with Gemini anymore,' he pleaded. Axton punched him in the face, and Matt plummeted to the ground.

'Bullshit!' He exclaimed angrily. 'You and that Caine tool are working together again, aren't you?' Gaige immediately tended to him.

'What the hell, Axton?' She screamed at him. Another woman with blue and similar tattoos to redhead stepped up. Another Siren.

'Whoever this guy is, at least give him a chance to explain himself,' she told him. 'Or I will get angry.' Matt got up, and nodded respectfully to her, and she returned it.

'Allow me to explain to all of you.'

'You might want to do that quick man,' said a sniper with goggles and a shaggy-looking appearance.

'4 years ago, me and Axton here worked together at the Gemini Corporation,' he replied. 'That's a corporation that hires mercenaries, assassins, and fighters, like me at the time, but most importantly: Vault Hunters. I was placed as his Gemini liaison or partner for a couple years. We were like brothers. Then there was a mission to diffuse a bomb within a Maliwan warehouse. It went South. Dangerously South. Axton was the bomb expert, and I was the guy securing the perimeter. Even Axton admitted that the bomb was too complicated to diffuse. He told me to get out, but he wouldn't come with me.' Matt looked down guiltily. 'I tried to go back in and save him, but Gemini stopped me. That was when I saw the warehouse blow up, and I assumed for the time being that you were dead. Of course, I was wrong. Somehow, Gemini discovered you were alive, and they told me you'd had gone turncoat.'

'So they sent Matt and this other guy called Caine after me,' Axton finished. 'I tried to convince Matt that Gemini was deceiving him, but he wouldn't believe me. Things got violent fast, and let's just say we both went away with scars.'

'I left the Gemini Corporation shortly after,' Matt repeated.

'Like hell you did,' Axton angrily responded.

'I wiped your logs off the database, Axton,' he told him. 'Don't you think Gemini would've killed you by now if I didn't?'

'Do not be so brash / You should listen to him now / Set your past aside,' said a tall, slender man in full body armour. His face was obstructed by a large black one-way glass mask. Matt elected to ignore how he just decided to speak in haiku.

 _'Fine!'_ Axton yelled at him. 'But I have my eye on you, Matt.' He stepped back to the side of the room, next to the bank.

'Well, on that bombshell,' said the fiery redhead. 'I'm Lilith.' She extended a hand, which Matt took. There was a sudden jolt of searing pain as the Siren's tattoos glowed orange for a few seconds. Matt reeled back in pain.

'Ow!' He winced, shaking his hand. The Hunter could easily observe it was burnt faintly. He jammed another hypo into it. 'Nice to meet you too.'

'Don't worry about her,' Gaige told him. 'It's just how she is.'

'Better pain resistance than I expected though,' Lilith observed. She pointed to the other Siren. 'I'm pretty sure that Maya won't do the same thing, so don't worry about that.' Maya nodded.

'Always a pleasure to meet another Vault Hunter,' she added. Whether or not her immediate respect for him may have been because of his likewise response prior or just because she had a similar response to all Vault Hunters, he wasn't sure. 'Especially those with respect.' That halfway answered his unsolicited question.

 _You shouldn't trust Caine though,_ Matt thought.

'I'm an assassin / I am of many talents / And I am Zer0,' said the slender man in black. Zer0 projected a red smiley face emoji on to his mask. Matt smiled back weakly.

'That other sniper is Mordecai,' Gaige pointed out.

'That is true, amigo,' Mordecai responded, gulping down a bottle of rakk ale. 'Don't mind my drunkenness…'

Gaige briefly mentioned a former Vault Hunter who had aided against Jack, with the name Krieg. Matt instantly recognised the German word for war, but ultimately decided not to press further into the enquiry of where exactly the man went. Instead, Matt joked that he had seen and heard worse than someone who desired to stop being a Vault Hunter.

'Hahaha!' Exclaimed the leather-wearing muscled man, pausing the cracking of his knuckles. He walked over to Matt, his larger size intimidating him a little. 'Name's Brick.'

He could see why.

'And the other, smaller brute is Salvador,' Gaige told him. Salvador frowned at her, and she smirked back.

'Nice to meet you, amigo!' He replied. 'They call me a Gunzerker!'

'Cool,' Matt greeted, not entirely sure what that meant.

'It means I can dual-wield weapons, no?' Sal had seemingly read the expression on his face. He nodded.

'I have some abilities too,' he absentmindedly remarked. 'I can slow down time at will. It's called Chronokinesis. I used it to save Gaige here.'

'Which I'm grateful for, by the way,' she reminded him.

'That ability would be Siren-level,' Maya realised. Matt shook Maya's comment off.

'Hyperion experiments on me,' he avoided. 'It was called the Genisys Project.' No one really was surprised that he hated Hyperion. 'I don't remember most of it. They kidnapped me for five months or so from Gemini and endlessly did "tests" before I got out.'

'And when you got out, you gained that power?' Maya seemed very interested. He nodded.

'It's one of the reasons I left the Gemini Corporation,' Matt responded. 'They wouldn't buy for my freedom; even after all I did for them.'

'So why did you come here?' Lilith asked him.

'There's a Vault on this continent,' he informed her. 'It's been hidden from all sensors, somehow. That was, until now. Caine, that guy Axton mentioned? He's a Vault Hunter too. And not a nice one: think Handsome Jack, but more freelance. As far as I am aware, he still works for Gemini. We both have this…device, which constantly attempts to track the location of the Vault. It's software on my ECHOear. Gemini called them Vault Instincts. Both of us need better technology to track, possibly something to sync.'

'Another Vault, huh?' Mordecai replied. 'I'm surprised the Vault Key didn't pick it up.'

'A ghost among all / I can see your purpose here / Time to get to work.' Zer0 seemed to enjoy the prospect of a new Vault.

'It's not as simple as that,' Lilith reminded him. 'So yours and this Caine guy's devices aren't powerful enough to accurately pinpoint the Vault's location?'

'I've been exploring Pandora since several months ago to accrue more data for my Vault Instincts,' he appended. 'In the meantime, it's best I help you fellow Vault Hunters, maybe some of your missions might help me get more data.'

'You'll need a place to stay then,' Lilith told him. 'Until this Vault business works out.'

'Just make sure it's nowhere near my house,' Axton griped quietly, although everyone heard him.

'What's your problem, compañero? He's here to help!' Sal repeated.

'There's a place next to mine that's free,' Gaige said. 'If you don't mind hearing the sound a blowtorch every so often.' Matt briefly shuddered, thinking of a blowtorch belonging to a scientist, while another one was jamming syringes into him. Hyperion experiments.

'And you wonder the previous neighbour moved out!' Maya laughed. Gaige smirked at her. 'Don't look at me like that. Your Deathtrap upgrades keep driving your neighbours away!' Matt laughed, and once he did, Gaige smiled at him feebly.

'Sure, I won't mind,' he finally concluded. 'I haven't really slept anywhere particularly comfortable recently, so I'll settle for it.'

'She'll show you to it later,' Lilith notified Matt. 'But right now: you're going to need training. 'You might want to get out by Scooter's garage.'

'I'll go there now,' he agreed.

'And that goes for the rest of you,' Lilith announced. Matt was confused. He thought he would be training with one person. Did he need an audience? He wasn't exactly a god among men or anything, so Matt was worried about just taking on a Siren. Or at least, he assumed he'd only ever be fighting Lilith when training.

Everyone immediately began walking towards the garage, with Gaige walking beside Matt. She was smiling at him, which was slightly disconcerting, given that he was not certain how this "training" would unfold.

'What are you smiling about so much?' He asked her.

'Lilith clearly thinks you're a force to be reckoned with,' Gaige commented. 'She's letting you take her on.'

'I've never fought a Siren before,' Matt responded.

'Lilith's the most powerful Siren documented,' Maya walked beside him. 'I would be a little afraid if I were you.' She then proceeded to catch up with Lilith and talk to her.

'You'll be fine!' Gaige reassured him, before adding more quietly, 'Mostly, anyway.'

Gemini had not necessarily prepared him to fight Sirens. And, as much as he hated the Corporation, they certainly trained their initiates vigorously. Sirens were a rare sight, only six existing in the world at a time, although whenever Gemini spoke of them, the general advice was to avoid them. This was early advice, given that he only became a Vault Hunter right at the end of his service at Gemini. Sirens he knew could manipulate reality, like him, but perhaps on a grander scale and wider range.

Once, he had seen Commandant Steele talking to the Director of the Gemini Corporation. She was a Siren too, and worked with the Crimson Lance. Matt didn't know nor did he care what happened to her, but given the state of the Lance on Pandora and the Vault of the Destroyer, she was likely dead.

They walked past the central spire of Sanctuary, which evidently kept the place up in the air. He spotted Scooter's garage, home to the guy who ran the Catch-A-Ride machines.

Was he ready for this? Matt knew he was about to find out.

There was no way that Lilith could be completely serious with this. She even made Brick afraid sometimes. And Salvador. Zer0 even showed a little bit of nervousness when around the aggressive Siren, although it was difficult to tell considering he wore that faceplate all the time. Matt knew that there was no way Lilith wasn't a hurricane of doom in that respect.

'Once we finish this training up, I assume Lilith will want to send you on some missions,' Gaige considered, snatching him from his trance of thought.

'Like what?'

'The Crimson Raiders aren't exactly well-armed,' she told him. 'She might want you to find some place to get some weapons.'

'I'll have something in mind later,' Matt responded. 'I'll just have to confirm.'

'Confirm what?'

'You'll find out,' he winked at her subtly, and Gaige giggled reservedly.

'Hey killer!' Lilith called to him. She beckoned for him to walk down the stairs to plaza. Ignoring the nickname, Matt caught up to her. 'We're going to begin with a spar.'

'Are you sure that's a good idea, Lil?' Mordecai asked her. 'To fight the most powerful Siren alive?'

'It'll be fine,' Matt and Lilith said in unison.

'It's _your_ funeral,' Mordecai uttered.

'For the record,' Lilith addressed Matt, 'we'll be measuring this based on how long you can last, not how well you can fight.'

'Because that's _so_ reassuring,' he responded. Lilith smiled at that sarcasm.

'Well, good luck anyway,' she added.

Once Lilith got into position, the fight began. It involved strictly fist-fighting, apparently, as she assumed a hand-to-hand fighting stance.

Lilith went in for a punch to the face, which Matt dodged, although she countered with a jab to rib. He was momentarily fazed by this, but he then punched her in the stomach.

'Watch it!' Mordecai warned. 'You've made her angry.' This didn't worry Matt as much as it would have five minutes ago. He was competent enough to keep up with her.

Without any warning, Lilith stepped back, and quickly disappeared, leaving a purple glow of what seemed like a mist.

'That's her Phasewalk!' Gaige yelled at him. 'She's able to teleport!'

Gaige's information was quickly proven, as Lilith jumped back out in a different location. She went flying towards him, ethereal orange wings glowing prominently on her back, as Matt's hand swirled with red energy. As soon as his punch landed on her stomach, Lilith was thrown back. She disappeared again, and immediately reappeared behind him, throwing a barrage of well-placed punches to throw him down.

Matt got up before Lilith could get close enough to force him to yield. He ran up close before she could enter Phasewalk and entered further fist fighting. As one punch went, so would an equally powerful block be thrown up to counter it, apart from every so often where Matt would achieve a painful strike.

Lilith disappeared once again, Phasewalking further.

Matt focussed, reactivating his Chronokinesis power. Time slowed down. Birds' wings flapped slower and slower, the blinking of the eyes of Matt's recent compatriots slowed, everything. Even the tiny particles of dust in the thin air began to slow their descent to the ground. He did not know where Lilith was going to appear next, but he had to figure it out.

He thought, observing his slowed surroundings, with an eye of a tiger. When he thought he saw a tinge of purple energy, Matt ran as fast he could over it. The Vault Hunter wasn't even entirely certain that it was Lilith; there was just a feeling, like a prediction. He was aware of the stress being put on his body. Matt roared an aggressive yell, seeing Lilith slowly start to appear from the purple mist. His fist swirled crimson, coming in to her face. Lilith's tattoos glowed orange, but it was too late.

Immediately upon his fist making contact, there was a loud shockwave that threw Lilith back against a wall. Time resumed its normal flow. She groaned in pain, attempting to get up. Matt ran over to her, placing his forearm over her neck.

 _'Yield,'_ he demanded. Everyone ran over to her, bemused as to what they just observed.

'OK, OK,' Lilith responded, evidently still in pain from the blow. 'I yield.' Matt drew his arm back, and smiled. He held an arm out for her, which Lilith took, helping her to her feet.

'I was _not_ expecting _that_ ,' Gaige commented, dumbstruck.

'How did you do that?' Lilith asked him. 'Chronokinesis or not, no one can predict where I Phasewalk. It's impossible.'

'I may not be able to see where you're coming from,' Matt replied cryptically. 'But I know what you're running from.'

'How unexpected / The Anomaly has won / A powerful foe,' Zer0 added.

'And an ally,' Gaige supplemented.

'He threw you on your ass, Lil! HAHAHA!' Brick jovially chuckled. Lilith threw an aggressive stare at him, her tattoos glowing. He jumped back.

'You OK, Lil?' Mordecai worriedly asked. 'It looks like you took a beating.'

'I'm fine,' she answered, rubbing the bruise on her cheek. 'Just a little groggy.'

'I haven't seen someone beat Lilith in a fair fight before,' Maya told Matt. 'I'm impressed.'

'Thanks.' Matt himself was feeling stress from his Chronokinesis. He dropped to his knees in weakness.

'Woah!' Maya exclaimed, helping him up. Matt could feel something warm trickle down his nose. He wiped under his nostrils and coughed up something. Blood.

'You OK?' Gaige asked him, holding him for stability.

'Just a bit of stress,' Matt assured her. 'Can't overuse my powers, and that last blow took a lot of effort.'

'You gotta be more careful, chico!' Salvador warned him. 'You don't want to die, no?'

'I'm fine.'

'Well, it pains me to say this,' Lilith said to him. 'But you beat me fair and square. I am quite impressed. Make sure you get up early in the morning; I have a specialised mission for you. Gaige, you might want to show him to his new home.'

Matt hadn't noticed that it was almost midnight. However, he wasn't that tired. Not necessarily enough to require vast amounts of sleep. Considering his previous nights on Pandora had been fairly rough, he knew how to sleep through most things.

His body had adapted to use energy much more efficiently following Hyperion's Genisys Project. After all, his Chronokinesis required a lot of energy, and took it all out from him, so energy efficiency and capacity was crucial. Matt was mainly just glad those two factors wouldn't die off whenever he attempted to slow down time.

Gaige grabbed his arm and began pulling him away and towards presumably his new house. Matt began walking just behind her, following her.

'I think you'll like the place,' she told him excitedly, her hands tensing on his arm for a few seconds. 'And not just because I'm living next to it!' Matt sniggered a little at that.

'Right now, Gaige, anywhere comfortable would be nice,' he remarked. 'Although, I don't really need much sleep.'

Gaige moved him past the main building where the fast travel was, and near where Marcus Munitions was. It appeared there had been recent renovation, somehow, adding a few more buildings to the place, given that the last two were still being built.

'They upgraded my house recently,' she told him. 'And they added in some extra houses. That one there' – she pointed the house evidently the left of hers – 'is yours.'

'Pretty cool,' Matt concluded, admiring the surprisingly well-maintained state of the house. 'Not bad, really.'

'Hold on, Lilith gave me the key.' Gaige let go of his arm and searched her pockets. Momentarily, she produced a key from her pocket. 'Here!' Matt watched as she opened the door to the house, fiddling with the key. The door burst open, revealing a mostly dark room. That was, until Gaige switched the lights on.

'Casa del Matt,' she announced. 'That's probably what Sal would say.'

It seemed fairly grand for the size that it was, with a kitchen of the back right of the ground floor, complete with a table and some chairs. To the front right – directly beside them – was a living room, with a holoscreen **(A/N: Basically a TV)** and a sofa. There was a bathroom situated just under the stairs. The stairs were just a few metres in front of the door, opposite them, with a small compartment space where the door to the bathroom was, leaving enough space for a desk in front of the door and a mirror on top.

'Wow,' was all that Matt could comment. His jaw visibly dropped.

'You're impressed?' Gaige noted. 'Well, that's good, because this is where you're going to staying. Vault Hunter extras.' She dropped the keys in his hand.

'I can picture it now: home of Matt Rye – a brand new Vault Hunter!' He chuckled, and Gaige laughed.

'Your surname is Rye?' She teased playfully.

'What's wrong with that?' He asked cheerily. Gaige hugged him, which took him aback.

'I don't think I've thanked you enough for saving my life,' she expressed to him. 'Thank you.'

'It's nothing, really.'

'Well, you weren't sure, but you decided to save me despite your own judgement,' she pleaded. 'I probably would have died without you since Deathtrap was damaged. And I have parents who worry about me often…' Matt grabbed the sides of her arms, in a manner of screaming sense into her.

'Gaige. It's fine. If anything, I should be saying sorry,' he re-joined. 'Sorry because I tried to manage life and death in my hands. No one should do that.'

'Don't apologise,' Gaige demanded of him. She looked like she was about to continue and add something on the end of that, but ultimately drew back and decided against it. She smiled. 'Well! I suppose you'll find your way to your bedroom! Good night!'

'Good night, Gaige.' With that, she left, and closed the door behind her.

* * *

 _It was a murky sight, not quite clear or defined._

 _All he could see around him were scientists engaging in various scientific actions. There was disorientating light up above, giving off the sense of photophobia._

 _'Executing detainment protocol one,' said one scientist, activating a few buttons and causing a robotic arm to come down and clamp the subject's limbs to the operating table. He screamed, but was cut off by another clamp covering his throat._

 _'Administering enhancement drug,' announced another scientist. Their specimen screamed again under the clamp, his muffled cries getting louder. His body struggled over and over._

 _'Preparing blowtorch,' claimed the third of the five workers. She produced a large one, and pressed it a few times to check it was working. Once she was certain, the blowtorch descended upon their "patient's" bare flesh. He could feel the white hot flames burn into his legs._

 _And it was painful. Indescribably so._

* * *

 **So…I don't think it would surprise anyone that Matt has had some lasting effects from when he was experimented on. I will go into more detail about what the program (specifically what it was aiming for), because it is quite important to the story as it explains some things about the new Vault and how it works.**

 **But that's for another time.**

 **Also, Krieg isn't in this for the most part, until near the end. I'll reveal where he went and what happened for him, however, let's just say there's a reason as to why he hasn't showed up at any point for any reason, or may the perspective doesn't switch to his at any point.**

 **I'll post the next few chapters soon for anyone who actually wants to read this…**


	3. Impact

**The plot thickens! Well, sort of…**

 **Matt may seem somewhat overpowered, which is why I introduced multiple limitations to his powers that mean he actually isn't. When he concentrates, he can become more powerful, however, it tales clear stress on his body. Hence, the nosebleeds and coughing up blood.**

 **Note: I have written the next two chapters in advance (Rising Shot and Sharing is Caring) because they all involve one specific mission that starts in** ** _this_** **chapter and also happen to fairly short, but I don't want to flood this story with updates or anything.**

 **That also gives me time to go over it, and improve errors and decide upon improvements.**

 **And without further ado…**

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Impact**

* * *

Matt woke up screaming and in a pool of sweat.

He was back in Sanctuary, in this en suite bedroom he'd found in the house Gaige had offered to him. Matt could not quite understand how Gaige's neighbours could bear to leave just because of her Deathtrap upgrades all night.

What Matt couldn't fathom was why he was still suffering from PTSD-induced nightmares, when the PTSD itself had cleared up almost entirely. Panic attacks essentially did not happen, nor did they worry him all that much. Yet when these nightmares came, there was always a degree of panic in his mind about it.

For a moment, he lay in his bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling, wondering how early Lilith wanted him to get up. He stared at the clock, which told him it was half past two in the morning. There was still a dull hum of a blowtorch.

 _Why do I still get nightmares about that damn blowtorch, yet I don't even get panic attacks upon seeing them?_ The Vault Hunter wondered to himself. He was glad he didn't anymore though. The Anomaly certainly didn't really want Gaige or anyone to see his panic attacks. Not with such intensity like the ones that he used to have.

He slid out of the bed, still caked in a large amount of sweat. Matt took a cloth from a desk drawer and wiped it across his brow. The young man wasn't happy when he thought about how he was going to have to wash all the linen on his bed that had been drenched in perspiration.

Suddenly, there was a ring from the doorbell, which drew his attention. He went downstairs in order to answer it. The thought of who may be at his door this early crossed Matt's mind.

 _Lilith?_

Once the door was opened, all questions were dispelled.

'Hello?' Matt greeted tiredly.

'Hey!' He looked to see Gaige standing there, with soot creating a border around her face where her mask must've been.

'Oh, hey Gaige,' he attempted to greet.

'Are you OK? I heard screaming.'

'Nightmare,' Matt responded, still very tired.

'That must have been some nightmare,' Gaige remarked. 'I could hear it over my blowtorch.'

'PTSD,' Matt added, which caused her to assume a more sympathetic look. 'Just some lasting effects.'

'Well…since you're up, you want to help with my work on DT?' She asked of him. Matt nodded.

'Yeah, I'd love to,' he concurred. 'Besides, I haven't actually _seen_ your Deathtrap contraption before.'

'Well, now's the best time!' Gaige invited.

She beckoned for him to follow, which he did. She led him next door, into the small little garage by her house. Gaige pulled up the metal barrier to reveal an intricately designed legless machine suspended in mid-air by chains in the middle of the small garage. It was armed with dangerous claws. She shut down the barrier again.

Once walking in, Matt remarked on how impressive the machine was, especially since it was built by an 18-year-old girl. Its eye was turned off, although it seemed similar to a CL4P-TP bot's eye, so he presumed it turned blue when activated.

'This is quite impressive Gaige,' Matt noted.

'Thank you, thank you,' she bowed slightly to respect his analysis. 'Should've won that science fair.'

'You built this for the science fair?' He inquired bemusedly. 'For school?'

'It was a while ago,' she excused. 'This girl, Marcie, copied my work and entered this dumb bot that wouldn't even function correctly. But her dad is apparently richer than _God,_ so he bought off all the judges, so she got first and I got third.'

'That's awful. You deserved to win with this creation.'

'Unfortunately, I can't exactly rub how good DT is in her face, because she's…dead. Deathtrap killed her when it saw her as a threat, because she pushed me.'

'And that's why you came here,' Matt surmised quietly. 'Because you were going to be charged with murder.'

'Yeah,' Gaige confirmed sadly. He put his arm around her.

'I'm not going to say that Marcie deserved to die,' Matt started. 'But I _will_ say that it isn't your fault. No one could have predicted that happening.'

'It's just…sometimes I wonder if it _was_ my fault,' the Mechromancer admitted.

'You didn't _aim_ for that to happen, so it's not something you should feel guilt for,' the Anomaly counselled. 'Besides, no one here is going to judge you. I haven't been here long, and I can tell that we _all_ have a tough past that we'd like to forget. A malfunction in programming, ultimately, is _not_ your fault.' She sighed, accepting it.

'I know…you're right,' Gaige reluctantly agreed. 'Anyway, I guess we should get to work on Deathtrap then.'

'Yeah, good idea,' he concurred. 'I'm assuming DT floats on gyro-jets, yes?' She nodded. 'That's the same technology that Torgue uses for its bullets. It consumes a lot of energy to power.'

'I haven't got anything more efficient.'

'Luckily, Gemini does,' Matt replied, producing a silvery white device cylindrical in shape. 'This is a Terrestrial Modifier, used by Gemini to manipulate surroundings. It has a built in Arc-X aero-jet digistructors. These allow inorganic objects to traverse planes while essentially walking on air.'

'That's revolutionary in the art of modern flight!' Gaige exclaimed. 'I've never heard those before.'

'That's because they're top secret, and largely experimental. Disclosing their existence to unauthorised personnel is punishable by death.'

'And you aren't worried about how they'll react to this?' Gaige exposed.

'I don't work for the Gemini Corporation anymore,' he reminded her. 'The worst they could do would be to send Caine after me, which they already have.'

'OK, if you're sure.'

'If I can just modify them to Deathtrap's interface, he should be able to digistruct the Arc-X jets. They'll take up a quarter of the energy for twice the power.'

'Wow! And you're just willing to use up one of these Terrestrial Modifiers? Thanks!'

'Don't thank me yet,' he warned her. 'I have to get it working. Where's the control panel interface?' Gaige pointed round the back of the robot, which Matt smiled and looked directly at.

Taking a screwdriver from a nearby red toolbox, he unscrewed the panel of off Gaige's invention, revealing intricate wires and mesh beneath the surface. Using the same tool, he took apart the Terrestrial Modifier, unplugging diodes and other nodes to grant him access to aero-jet models. He tore out a circuit board to deactivate all safeguards placed in the device by Gemini scientists.

'Well, that was easy,' Matt abruptly stated, pulling out the aero-jet digistruction adaptor. 'Now, this is the hard part.'

'You got this!' Gaige encouraged.

'Thanks. Could you hold down Deathtrap's friction resistor? That one just there,' he pointed to which one, and Gaige dutifully obliged. 'If I can just get this right…' He grabbed her blowtorch, quickly pushing away the minor visions of that female scientist preparing her blowtorch to incinerate into his bare flesh.

After appropriate intensity had been selected, Matt blasted the wire connected to the aero-jet digistructor with intense heat, to an almost liquid state. The adaptor's wire easily melted onto the exposed wire he'd cut out earlier.

Matt was glad he still knew a thing or two about these mechanics from Gemini. Although, robotics weren't something he was used to, considering how he had not encountered many before. Gaige was definitely the expert when it came to that, especially on Deathtrap.

After adjusting a few extra things on the control panel, he said, 'Alright, done.'

'Great!' She positively complimented. Matt screwed the panel back on it, and smiled.

'Feel free to use the Terrestrial Modifier for parts at any time,' he finalised. 'Since it won't properly work without that aero-jet digistruction adaptor, you might as well use it for a better purpose.'

'Are you sure it wasn't important in any way?' Gaige wondered worriedly.

'No, no! It's not really a device I use often!' He assured. 'Feel free to mess around with it.'

'Thanks so much for helping me out,' she thanked. 'No one's really ever helped me out like that before.'

'Let's just hope it works.'

Gaige nodded to that and pressed a few buttons, activating Deathtrap. Upon unbinding DT from its chains, Gaige noticed how it was able to continue to float perfectly, but this time it would move faster and more swiftly. It retracted its claw upon identifying two non-threats: Gaige and Matt. Matt was glad she had thought to add him to the list of identified allies.

'Yay! It works!' Gaige jumped up and down in excitement, almost toppling Matt in an overbearing hug. 'Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!'

'It's no problem, Gaige!' He modestly dodged, happy that he no longer felt tired. 'You wanted my help, so I gave you it! Deathtrap should function at twice the efficiency now, principally during its suspension in air.'

As she deactivated and deconstructed DT back into her robotic arm gauntlet, she added, letting go of Matt, 'I am _so_ happy!'

'Could you two keep it down?' Demanded a voice from outside. The metal barrier was pulled to reveal Lilith, with a fairly pissed off look at them. 'You know, I said to get up early yesterday Matt, just not _this_ early.'

'Sorry,' Matt and Gaige apologised in unison. Lilith relaxed.

'It's OK,' she supplied. 'It's just I've had enough with Matt screaming in his sleep.' Gaige specifically looked very upset at the latter statement.

'Hey! He can't help his PTSD!' She defended. 'How would you feel after being experimented on _for months_ by Hyperion?'

'Gaige: don't worry about it,' he stopped her. 'I'm used to it.'

'I'm not mad at you for your PTSD,' Lilith supported, before Gaige could display her outrage at his acceptance of this supposed discrimination. 'Just…you can see how it keeps the rest of us up all night. You clearly already woke Gaige up.'

'Erm…actually, I have been up all day and night working on Deathtrap…' Gaige admitted.

'Why?!' Lilith demanded. 'You're just gonna tire yourself out! How are you supposed to go on missions if you're exhausted?'

'Well, it was worthwhile!' She argued. 'Matt helped improve the air suspension platform for DT. It's so much better now!' Lilith sighed.

'Whatever…hey killer,' she clearly directed this at Matt. 'Get some equipment together, we're gonna push ahead on this mission. Walk with me, and I'll brief you on it.' He nodded, and bid farewell to Gaige, who hugged him again.

'You better be back later to help me test out my Deathtrap!'

'Wouldn't miss it for the world, Gaige.' Matt stepped out of her tiny garage, and began walking with Lilith.

'So you and Gaige, huh?' She teased.

'What? No!' Matt fell for it.

'Yeah, just friends right?' He nodded.

'Yes!'

'Uh, huh?'

He ignored her now clear teasing.

'Anyway,' Lilith rebounded. 'As I am sure Gaige has already told you, the Crimson Raiders aren't too amazingly well-armed. Here at Sanctuary, we have two main goals besides wiping out Hyperion: get a better shield, and better weapons. The second one's easier than the first.'

'You're telling me,' Matt nodded, confirming everything she just said. 'I know where to go. You know the Crimson Lance's armoury?'

'Yes. Me, Brick, Mordecai and…Roland…raided it a while back,' Lilith confirmed. Matt did not dare ask who Roland was. 'It was blown up though.'

'Yeah, well the Gemini Corporation set up shop in the Parched Fathoms, and renovated the entire place,' he informed her reluctantly. He knew he was right because he checked out the place using his Vault Instincts.

'Seriously? When?'

'Half a year ago. They succeeded in restoring the chests to their former glory back when I was working for them. I didn't gain high enough clearance to learn general info about it, I just know it exists.'

'And let me guess, killer: you want to go and raid it and bring weapons for the Raiders?'

'Precisely.'

'Not on your own, you're not,' Lilith warned. 'I know the Parched Fathoms, so I'm coming with you.'

'I thought you didn't go out in the field often,' Matt dissuaded.

'I don't. I'm making an exception. Besides, I get to see you in action too,' she continued.

'Fine; primarily, there's no way I'm gonna talk you out of this anyway.' The Siren smirked in confirmation to that statement.

'I'll just leave a note with Gaige so everyone knows where we went,' she remembered. 'Get your stuff together.'

'I left 'em in the bank.'

'Go on then killer,' Lilith beckoned. Matt went on his way to Crimson Raider HQ. There was no doubt in his mind that this was going to be fun. As of late, he had not indulged on missions for the fun of it, not even the reward. He preferred to be doing something productive, and helping someone. That was still, partly, why he was doing this now. The Crimson Raiders would stand more of a chance against Hyperion. And Gemini, potentially.

 _That's the plan,_ he thought, as he quietly opened the door to Crimson Raider HQ. Even Tannis was absent from the eerie building, with little sound in the air. Matt walked up the stairs, careful not to make much noise and not disturb anyone else. He wasn't quite sure why though, since most people probably would have awoken from the screaming and rapid thanking which largely created noise that could wake anyone up. Lilith was woken up.

He shuffled around the corner and towards the bank on his left, leaving a note on the front informing anyone that some of the weapons had been taken due to Lilith and him going on a mission.

'Stocking up?' Said a voice behind him. Matt spun around to see Axton studying the holographic computer in the centre of the room straight ahead. 'I knew you'd be planning on betraying everyone.'

'No!' Matt protested. 'Lilith's sending me on a mission with her.'

' _Lilith_ is going on a mission with you? Yeah, right!' Axton degraded.

'Special occasion: we're getting the Crimson Raiders better weapons.'

'From where?'

'Crimson Lance armoury. It's been rebuilt by Gemini,' Matt explained, collecting some weapons. 'So we're going to steal some weapons. We have to be stealthy.'

He brought out his Veruc, Maggie, Sham shield, Volcano and Hornet and threw them into his backpack. He already had his slag singularity grenade mod equipped, prepared to use it to misdirect and forcibly move Gemini personnel that he assumed would be guarding the place.

'Whatever,' Axton replied, and Matt presumed he would draw back.

He was wrong.

As Matt was preparing to leave, he adjusted the new clothes had put on just before he answered the door to Gaige earlier. Without warning, there was a significant blow to his head. He didn't quite register what it was from, but it felt like the butt of a gun. Axton had evidently hit him in the head.

' _That's_ for betraying me, dick,' he laughed triumphantly, before grabbing Matt and throwing him against the wall opposite the bank, with his arm pushing into his throat. Matt found it difficult to breathe thanks to Axton's attack. 'I'm not letting you hurt anyone else.'

'Axton-' Matt started to say.

'Shut up!' He interrupted him. 'You may have gotten everyone else under your little spell, but I want you to know that you aren't affecting me. I know you're willing to go against anyone.'

'I'm not! I've been doing my best to help!' Matt pleaded, struggling from his grip.

'Yeah, help kill everyone,' Axton bickered. 'You're Gemini scum.'

'Matt? I hope you've got everything!' Lilith called up from downstairs. She walked up the stairs before Axton could attempt to cover up what was going on. As soon as Lilith observed what was going on, she quickly entered Phasewalk, disappearing momentarily, before exiting rapidly and flying towards Axton. She Phaseblasted him, and pinned him by the throat against the wall.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' She demanded of him. 'I can't go out on a mission with someone who's been beaten half to death!'

'Wait, you really _are_ going on a mission? With _him_?' He somehow could not comprehend this.

'We haven't got a place for assholes, Axton,' Lilith warned him. 'It's not as if _you_ ever would.' Axton seemed to be absent of an answer for that. 'Get out of here before I liquefy you.' He began to say something, but immediately sprinted away.

'Thanks,' Matt accredited. 'I suppose we best fast travel to the T-Bone Junction. I believe that's close enough to the Deep Fathoms.'

'I should just be able to teleport us closer,' Lilith responded. 'I'll just need a handful of Eridium from that safe over there.' She pointed to a small safe in the bottom corner of the back room, and Matt ran over to it. He tore it open, revealing an unrefined Eridium stack. The Vault Hunter grabbed it, and handed to her. 'Thanks.'

Once the Eridium was absorbed, she told Matt to step back and she focussed for a few seconds. There was a flash of purple light and energy, and within moments, they were somewhere else.

The T-Bone Junction. Quite far off where they intended to be.

'Dammit!' Lilith exclaimed. 'Sorry, I'm still ironing out the kinks.'

'We might be able to reactivate the fast travel though,' Matt suggested. He turned around to face the Junction. His face fell dark. 'Oh.'

'What?' Lilith inquired, turning around. 'And I call _you_ killer.'

The Junction was littered with bodies. Everywhere. And they were recent, too, going by the decomposition of the corpses. He inspected the bodies, noticing many gunshot wounds on them. One had been hit with some many bullets that the face wasn't even strictly recognisable. Despite the variety in corpses, there was definitely a similarity in the culprit of this horrific deed. It was –

'Gemini,' Matt bitterly thought aloud.

'You can tell from just the corpses?' The Siren realised.

'You see the "X" symbol drawn into their heads?' The Anomaly asked her, to which she nodded. 'It's a mark of Gemini execution.'

'You know, I am starting to see why you left those assholes,' Lilith commented.

'Oh, you're starting?' He sardonically responded. She shook it off.

'Why would they do this?' The Siren queried. 'I mean, I thought _Hyperion_ was merciless.'

'They were in the way,' Matt answered. 'So they slaughtered them. Can't take over this entire area without a few _hundred_ casualties.'

'That's brutal.'

'That's the way that Gemini thinks.' And he certainly did not sound too pleased about it. 'These people were innocent, but they don't care.' Matt signalled for Lilith to follow him towards the fast travel machine, stepping over dead bodies carefully. She caught up to him, dodging more bodies on her way.

Within a few minutes, they made it to the fast travel, which looked slightly beaten up during the supposed raid Gemini had enacted some time ago. It must've been deactivated by the Corporation so that no one could escape. Unfortunately.

'Ok, I think I can get this done,' Matt told her, observing the beaten up nature of the old fast travel unit.

'You sure?' Lilith asked.

'I hope.'

He began taking off the control panel of the machine, looking at the wires inside. Luckily, the digistruction adaptor was still fairly intact, perhaps even functional. He leaned slightly, attempting to reconnect the switch. Matt winced as it gave him an electromagnetic shock.

'What the hell?' The Vault Hunter muttered. There was a flash of light on the activation panel, replacing the holographic finger pad. Instead, a logo appeared. It was a 2D red gemstone rhombus, with a neat, airbrushed-style G in the centre.

'This fast travel unit is property of the Gemini Corporation,' said a condescending male AI voice. 'We warn you not to attempt usage of this particular machine. _Security firewall engaged.'_

'Well, shit,' Lilith swore.

'Security isn't my area,' Matt admitted. 'Lemme call Gaige.' He tapped his Gemini standard-issue ECHOear earpiece and called for her.

'Matt?' The voice on the other end asked. Gaige had answered quickly.

'Yeah, hi Gaige, um…I don't suppose you might be able to get past a security firewall?'

'Just send me the data through your ECHO.' He produced his standard ECHO device, happy he had synced it with his ECHOear. He produced a cable from it, and plugged it into the fast travel machine. There was a flicker of light on the Gemini logo, before it changed into a set of skull and crossbones.

'Yeah, and if you can hurry up, that'd would be great too,' said Lilith, joining the call.

'Hey! _You_ try doing this when _you're_ tired as hell!' Gaige pleaded defensively.

'Maybe if you hadn't decided to stay up so late you wouldn't feel that way,' Lilith harshly argued.

'I had to work on DT! If I hadn't, then my little robot wouldn't even be a viable option in combat!'

'Relax both of you!' Matt interrupted. 'Don't worry Gaige, you're doing great.'

'Thanks, Matt.' She continued to sift through the code and security framework, trying to find a hole. It didn't take long. She tore the hole in the code wide open, leaving it vulnerable to attack. Gaige eventually found the part that would tie the fast travel to a certain company, and deleted it.

'Access granted,' said a female AI voice, different the Gemini-specific male one. 'Fast Travel enabled.'

'Thanks Gaige!'

'No problem. You should be able to teleport out of T-Bone after you've finished your job.'

'Excellent,' Lilith added. Matt concluded the call, unplugging his ECHO from the machine.

'Right, we should get a Catch-A-Ride vehicle,' he told her, which Lilith nodded to that. Before they could do anything else, there was a sound of footsteps nearby. Matt instinctively shot his hand out in front of her as a means of a barrier, but then realised it was Lilith and drew his hand back. He took his Maggie revolver and aimed down the Jakobs sights to search for the owner of those footsteps.

'Come to me my pasty cake!' Lilith and Matt became visibly alarmed upon recognition of the presence of a Psycho. The Psycho appeared around the corner.

'I'm gonna floss my teeth with your face!' Several more appeared.

'It's time for THREE pounds of flesh!'

'I made you a salad, outta worms!'

'Another story to sing to the cages at home!'

'Another walking meat puppet!'

'Blood! Blood! BLOOD!'

Certainly, it didn't take long for the Psychos to begin their charge towards them, buzzaxe in hand. Quickly, Matt shot two of them in the head, and shot a third's buzzaxe out of the air. Lilith shot two more with a Vladof pistol, leaving one final Psycho. He used his Chronokinesis to quickly slow time, and threw him against a wall.

'My blood…it's salty…' claimed the Psycho, before dying.

'Do you think there're any more bandits?' Lilith questioned.

'The commotion would've attracted them,' Matt advised. 'We should hurry.'

He pointed back towards the Catch-A-Ride, and they quickly ran over to the machine, which was not too far away.

' _They say Scooter is the fastest ride in town: Catch-A-Ride…! Oh…I just realised that's an insult.'_

'I know a shortcut,' Lilith told him. 'Since Hyperion added an extra highway.'

Matt was ready.

* * *

 **That wasn't as long as the last chapter, but it was close...**

 **I don't really want to stretch out this plot thread all that much, since it is going to build up to something a little more important and will affect the rest of the story. Besides, the whole "getting weaponry from the Armoury" I feel shouldn't be too long. Although I think that doing that is a no-brainer. Like seriously, if it hadn't been blown up the first time, I genuinely think this would happen anyway. Which is why I wrote that Gemini refurbished it.**

 **I'll be sure to post the rest soon, if anyone actually wants it…**


	4. Rising Shot

**So…this is kinda like the second part to the whole "raiding the Armoury" plot thread. I'll probably be introducing some more characters in order to build up to the Vault, and knowledge on it, because that's what this story is about. After they get the weapons, they will also get a new shield. And then it will go on to fully tackling the Vault itself.**

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Rising Shot**

* * *

The Siren suggested that she drive, because she knew her way around, and where the Deep Fathoms area was. Matt approved, and stepped into the Gunner seat. Once the vehicle began moving, he started to keep a fair eye out for potential enemies.

Gemini soldiers were likely to be patrolling the area. And they were definitely well-armed, especially when compared to the Crimson Raiders. And he certainly did not want to fight any of their hired mercenaries, fighters or indeed Vault Hunters too. Some of those Vault Hunters he knew him when he was at Gemini, but half of them likely saw him as a traitor now. If Aurora was someone to go by, mainly.

She was another one of those Vault Hunters that she'd met. They used to be friends, quite good ones at that. However, as Axton had proved, if you make a simple action with serious implications, people close to you were likely to see you as an enemy. Seeing her would probably serve as a distraction: one Matt could not afford for.

Lilith drove over the bridge, approaching the old Crimson Lance outpost. She informed Matt that they were fairly close, before swearing upon noticing a few soldiers guarding the outpost just before the red light bridge. They jumped out of their vehicle, citing that their Runner gun was not accurate enough to face off against all of the soldiers.

'Gemini soldiers!' Matt warned. 'They're armoured!' He switched to his Hornet, and Lilith switched to her unique Defiler. They began firing, seeing no need to use anything other than a good pistol.

'It's the traitor!' Shrieked one of the soldiers, moments before Matt shot him in the head and burned a hole right through him. Lilith entered Phasewalk, disappearing in a purple flash.

'He's with a Siren dammit!' Announced another one of them.

'Sup,' Lilith replied, upon exiting her Phasewalk and blowing a few of them up into a million pieces. Another soldier sneaked up behind her, and was about to knock her out with his AR, before Matt shot him in the head. The soldier slumped to the ground as Lilith recognised his presence.

A few more soldiers arrived, and actively threw all their firepower at them. He pointed and fired at a few, before Lilith entered Phasewalk. Matt slowed down time, and kicked the last two of them off to the right, where Lilith exited her Phasewalk and ripped both of them to pieces.

No more of Gemini's foot soldiers appeared outside the outpost, and luckily, Matt had scrambled communications, preventing them from alerting the rest of the army.

Lilith walked up beside Matt, fist-bumping for their exceptional teamwork moments ago.

'No more should come,' he noted. 'I scrambled communications. That should allow us to take a more stealthy approach.'

'Good job, killer,' Lilith praised. 'Now we just gotta get inside.'

Matt inspected one of the bodies, seeing if he could find anything. Thankfully, there was a keycard on the body that they could use. He threw it to her, and she smiled at it.

'Perfect,' she said. Lilith ran over to the door interface, and placed the key card into the door. It looked like Gemini had decided to add this door here to prevent a security breach of the Armoury. Smart. But not smart enough.

The interface flashed green, indicating that access was granted. The door slid open, revealing a further stretch of road beyond. Lilith and Matt climbed back into their Runner vehicle. She drove them past the door and into the road leading straight to the Crimson Lance or now Gemini Corporation Armoury.

'How long's it been since you were last here?' Matt yelled over the sound of the car.

'Not since we raided the Armoury!' Lilith shouted back. 'So about five years ago!'

'OK!'

'How long has Gemini been on Pandora?'

'Not for that long!' He answered. 'A couple months or so! That's when they sent Caine down, so I can assume that's when they set up their bases on Pandora _and_ Elpis!'

There was no way that Gemini hadn't pulled out all the stops to protect their Armoury. So infiltrating it might prove to be bit of a challenge. However, Matt would not have suggested this place unless he was certain they would be able to get through it one way or another.

They were not far from the Armoury, and it was noticeable in the immediate distance. They both got out of the vehicles and crouched behind cover. Matt produced his Volcano sniper rifle, gauging the threat they would soon face.

'Ok…I see about five foot soldiers, two Gemini Deceptors, and about eight Elites.'

'What are Deceptors and Elites?'

'Deceptors are like Hyperion Infiltrators: they can turn invisible. However, much like the rest of Gemini's army, they're armoured too. And Elites are heavily-armed, heavily-arm _oured_ , and they can create a small shock blast with their Needle Devices. I think there was one Conquistador too, and they can digistruct missiles.'

'And they're patrolling the area?' Lilith looked up over the cover. He nodded. 'What the hell?' Matt stared at her, looking for answers. She pointed to the left, where there were Loaders making their quite robotic movements across to the other side of the area. They weren't Hyperion Loaders. It was obvious by the Gemini logo on each and every one of them.

'I don't know anything about Gemini Loaders,' Matt admitted them. 'They were never a thing in my time at Gemini.'

'Looks like they're willing to steal ideas from even Hyperion.'

'I get the feeling they didn't steal anything.'

'You think they're in cahoots with Hyperion?'

'Well, they wouldn't save me from them, which would tell _me_ that they at least don't want a war with them. So hell, maybe.'

'Luckily the Loaders won't be too much of a problem.'

'Maybe, if we can get past them, we might be able to deactivate the security system. Taking those weapons should be easier once the system is offline.'

Lilith nodded, and they crept along the site, noting that they would need to hurry - the Pandoran Sun was beginning to come up. Hopefully, their mission would not have to end in a scene. If Gemini were aware that he was here, and ready to draw blood, then they would do everything in their power to stop him. They were already searching for him, using Caine as a medium.

'Lilith, take this,' he handed her a small round black device. 'It's a C-Digistructor. A bit like a mini-New-U machine. Scan a body and you can assume its form.'

'Oh…and the plan is to take out two of them and pretend to _be_ them.' Matt nodded in concurrence, and handed the device to her.

'If we can take out those two lagging behind, we should be able to sneak in undetected.'

'Great, killer.' They sneaked back along the patrol, hugging the cover so that they would not be seen. The G-SGT Loader and G-GUN Loader both paused for a second, causing Matt's heart to skip a beat. They turned around, but instead of opening fire on them as he expected, the robots instead gave an order to one of the soldiers.

'ASSUME REGULATORY FORMATION,' ordered the G-SGT Loaders.

'ORDER RECEIVED,' claimed the G-GUN Loader.

'Yeah whatever,' replied one of the Gemini Elites. They began to change formation, which alerted Matt to their narrowing window. He nodded to Lilith, and they quietly ran over to the two Gemini Deceptors at the back, pulled them into a headlock, and covered their mouths so they could not forewarn the other guards. They snapped both their necks secretly behind the corner.

Matt and Lilith scanned the bodies, copying their forms. Shortly after, he used a corrosive weapon to melt both of the bodies, quickly disposing of them. Both of them assumed their forms. Matt activated the Invisibility Capacitor on the waist to check it was working. It was, and he disappeared from sight, and momentarily reappeared. Lilith checked her Capacitor also, and disappeared and reappeared.

'Well, now I know what it's like to be Zer0,' Lilith commented, her voice now modulated. Matt was confused. 'Oh, uh…he can activate "Deception" where he goes invisible and throws out a holographic copy of himself.'

'Ah.'

They stepped out into the patrol before the others would realise their absence. Quickly, the two disguised individuals caught up with the group, and walked behind them, holding the rifles that they had also stolen from the corpses.

'DECEPTOR #1,' the G-SGT Loader addressed, looking at Lilith. 'INVESTIGATE TECHNOLOGICAL MALFUNCTION AT SECTOR 3.' The Gemini SGT Loader then moved to face Matt. 'DECEPTOR #2: PATROL LEFT WING.'

'Understood,' both of them assented, seeing this as their chance. They moved out of sight and went invisible. Lilith directed him over to a security panel inside a small hut where they would be able to deactivate the security system clandestinely. She took out her soldier keycard, but Matt stopped her.

'A simple foot soldier would not have the clearance to deactivate the security system, and the soldiers would know that. We would just be alerting everyone here that someone is trying to infiltrate the Armoury.' Matt deactivated his Invisibility Capacitor and plugged his ECHO into the port on the back of the panel, and a set of skull and crossbones appeared again on the small screen by the keycard slot.

'Need my help again, Mr Rye?' Gaige had immediately joined in an ECHO call. Lilith slightly sniggered at the surname, but Matt ignored her.

'As it seems Gaige,' he informed her, turning off the voice modulator. 'We're kinda disguised at the moment.'

'I see…' she scanned through the files that the ECHO was sending. 'So you need to deactivate the security system? Yeah, you're definitely going to need my help. Even some the highest security clearance Gemini guards wouldn't be able to get through this.'

'How'd you know this place was a Gemini location?'

'Downloaded it from your ECHO, duh!' Gaige smirked, even though she knew Matt wouldn't see it. 'I know you're at the old Crimson Lance Armoury, because, where else would you go from the T-Bone Junction?'

'Fair enough, killer. Just do your thing,' Lilith ordered.

'OK.' She began looking through the code to implant some of her own, attempting to deactivate clearance requirements secretly. It did not take long before she had found a way in. And Gemini's security was pretty terrible against Gaige. The system definitely resisted, but she prevented it from sending out any alarms, using a bit of her ingenuity, so it wasn't too much of a problem.

A minute or two later and the system deactivated, albeit silently and without alerting anyone.

 _Perfect._ The Anomaly was evidently pleased.

'You know, after this, you owe me a drink,' Gaige noted.

'I thought you _didn't_ drink?' Lilith chimed in.

'I'm making an exception!'

'Sure, we can get a drink when we get back,' he accepted. 'See you, Gaige.'

'Bye, Matt.' Gaige ended the call, and the male Vault Hunter reactivated his modulator.

'We best get inside before anyone notices us,' Lilith advised. He nodded, running over to the large automatic door to the light bridge. The door opened and unlocked, revealing the light bridge to Road's End.

One hour had passed, and now Lilith and Matt were back in their vehicle, now driving around a bend towards what _was_ Fort Knoxx. Where the Armoury was. Matt supposed it was now Fort Gemini, or the Gemini Corporation Armoury.

It had been quite a long drive to get there, since the place was far from any fast travel, and Matt didn't exactly want to let Lilith teleport them, and risk them ending up even further away.

The Anomaly was especially glad that they were disguised now, with a cloaking mechanism that would mean getting into the Armoury would be a lot easier. Especially considering the abundant numbers of Gemini guards that would be swarming the place. They were in many ways like zombies, a mere annoyance as one, but a threat in large numbers. Not to mention they also followed one simple directive – eliminate all threats – and acted like drones in that regard. The puppets didn't even know who they were really serving either.

When he mentioned it to Lilith, though, she laughed, telling him that she'd faced actual zombies created by some mad relative of Doctor Zed, Doctor Ned, in a place called Jakobs Cove. Matt then responded that it wasn't the first time he had heard of a brother of Doctor Zed, muttering something about someone called Doctor Ted. This left Lilith quite confused, but ultimately didn't ask questions.

 _Aurora helped me with the Ted business,_ Matt thought pleasantly to himself. _Good ole 'Ora._

Caine was not exactly like Aurora. He was cold and merciless, and had this de facto appearance about him that had always made Matt dislike him. And if he found the Vault, further problems would arise. Taking on the Vault Guardian aside, the knowledge inside the Vault would be unparalleled. With that power, the Gemini Corporation would be virtually unstoppable. Eridian technology was known to be powerful, and not just from the old weapons that you used to be able to find. Or the Warrior, which was an Eridian super weapon itself.

Lilith drive over a ramp situated in the middle of the highway, and went under a small bridge, carefully dodging all the tactical cover that the Lance had planted a while back.

They were coming up on the grounds of the Fort. Lilith and Matt got out of the vehicle a fair distance away from the building.

Turning their Invisibility Capacitors on, they crept through the entrance to Fort Gemini. Sprawling the scene were copious Gemini Foots, Elites, Deceptors, Conquistadors and Loaders.

Surveying the scene was a Super Badass Loader. It had a different design to Hyperion Loaders; it was camouflaged in tiger camouflage, and it had a green eye, instead of a blue one, while not engaging targets. There was at least ten G-GUN Loaders, five G-ION Loaders, eight G-BUL Loaders, one G-EXP Loader, and two G-PWR Loaders nearby.

'Keep a low profile,' Matt suggested quietly. 'We don't want the Super Badass to see us.'

'What's it doing?'

'It's scanning. We have to move quickly.'

They moved through the compound, spotting a tunnel at the end of the pathway. Where they needed to go was off to the left, where there would be a path to the Armoury. Luckily, their deactivation of the security system earlier would mean they would be able to open the door without needing Gaige.

There were a few red energy forcefields set down by the tunnel, complete with a turret in the middle. They reminded Matt of Axton's turret, albeit smaller. Axton's sabre turret had many uses back when they both worked for Gemini, more than just gunning down enemies. Its shield was helpful, certainly, although it was easily dismantled. Additionally, it was quite disconcerting when Axton talked to it like it was his wife or something. The Commando already had an ex-wife, so no wonder he did it.

Still annoying and weird, though.

'There's the door to Armoury,' Lilith whispered.

'With about a million guards in front of it,' Matt pointed out. 'We need a distraction.'

'There's an alarm on the opposite end of the compound,' Lilith informed him. 'If we activate it, it should draw them away for a few moments.'

As if answering to their problem, the sirens on the other end of the compound abruptly went off, even though the security system was deactivated. The many guards by the doorway to the Armoury immediately abandoned their post to inspect what was going on.

'Well, that's…handy,' Matt remarked.

'I would hope so,' said a voice through an ECHO call. Gaige again. 'That was kinda the point.'

'Wow, thanks, Gaige,' he responded in bewilderment.

'I knew you'd need a diversion, so I made one,' she informed him proudly.

'But how did you know that we were literally _just_ discussing doing the exact method of distraction that you just did?' Lilith wondered.

'Erm…I didn't,' Gaige admitted. 'I guess _that_ was just a coincidence.'

'Alright then, killer,' Lilith accepted. 'We'll call you when we're done.' She ended their group call.

Looks like things were shaping up to be one their best missions ever – and not just because of the profit to be gained from it.

* * *

 **That was pretty short, to be honest. About 2,800 words, while the others 3 – 4k.**

 **But that's not too much of a problem.**

 **Anyways, I know mentioning what Elites and Conquistadors do may seem pointless considering they don't actually** ** _use_** **those upgrades Gemini gave them, but they will become more important later.**

 **Remember: this** ** _is_** **only the fourth chapter, and I have already planned out around sixteen to twenty…**


	5. Sharing is Caring

**Another one down! Sorry, I really should not be quoting lines that the Vault Hunters say after a kill in BL2…whatever.**

 **Well anyway, I'll be furthering this story along a little more, but I don't want this to be too slow or fast.**

 **I will introducing more Vault Hunters as story ensues, not too soon…**

* * *

 **Chapter Five: Sharing is Caring**

* * *

Without a moment's notice, they ran into the Gemini Armoury. Now that the security system was deactivated, their presence inside the Armoury would not be detected. They moved through the corridors, reaching a large open space with a small ramp leading further into the building.

'You know, I am glad that General Knoxx is dead and no longer guarding all the chests,' Lilith commented absentmindedly.

'I'm just happy that Caine isn't here,' Matt responded. 'One time, we were on a mission together, and we were storming a Dahl Lost Legion base, and we came across some hostages. He wouldn't let me save them, and he knocked me out so I couldn't stop him. Caine just stood there while some Lost Legion goons executed them. He said that they weren't "useful" to them, especially because it "wasn't a rescue mission" either.'

'Yep, that sounds like something Handsome Jack would say too.' Matt sighed irritably, clearing trying to forget the memory he just brought up. As they walked through the narrow corridors, invisibility now off due to obvious lack of enemies to hide from, Lilith continued to converse, or try to strike up one. 'Did you meet any other Vault Hunters while you were at Gemini?'

'Not many,' Matt said. 'There was Aurora. We did a lot of jobs together. I've saved her life many times, and she's saved mine many more. She used to joke that one day this Gemini business would be the death of us, and in my way, it was when I left them. Good ole 'Ora.'

'You two were good friends?' Matt smiled fondly.

'Quite close friends, yes. But I can't imagine she'd want to see me now that Gemini's filled her head with lies and half truths about me.'

'If you were close, then maybe if you tell what happened, she'll believe you.'

'Maybe, if I knew where she was.'

There was silence for most of the time they were walking towards the elevator, with only an awkward moment when Lilith said she was going to enjoy being in her own normal form and not the form of a Gemini Deceptor. Matt nodded to that, but didn't respond fully.

After they had finished navigating their way through, they finally made it to the elevator that would lead down to the Armoury. Lilith pressed the button, and they descended into the bowels of the compound. There were so many chests. Gemini had either salvaged some of them or had planted other ones themselves. Either way, there was going to be some excellent loot to be obtained from them.

'Wow,' Matt observed, as the elevator reached the bottom. 'What should we loot first?'

'You have a way to get all of this loot, right?' Lilith asked. Matt nodded, producing a special silvery white ECHO device.

'Another fabrication of Gemini,' he announced. 'It's designed for specialized capacity capabilities. It can hold 100 items inside.' He threw her a copy. 'With that ECHO, now we can nab all of their loot!'

'Haha! Nice going, killer!' Lilith playfully punched his shoulder. She ran over to a red chest and opened it. Inside were a few weapons of purple rarity, and one of Legendary orange rarity. 'Ah, nice! A new Chimera pistol!'

'Atlas?!' Matt inspected the weapon. 'They went out of business ages ago! These are definitely salvaged chests…'

'Check this out…' Lilith aimed at the wall, and fired a few shots. The first one did shock damage, the second explosive, the third corrosive, and the last one did incendiary damage. 'It cycles through different elements.'

'Cool!' Matt looked on with an impressed look, which changed to surprise when Lilith tossed it to him.

'Take it.'

'Are you sure? You seem to be pretty impressed with it.'

'I have my own one,' she reassured, waving her hand dismissively. 'Besides, you've earned it.'

'Thanks,' Matt accredited, putting it into his ECHO device. He looked at the other weapons. 'What's this "Double Anarchy" weapon?'

'It fires in a circular weaving pattern.' Matt fired the gun at the wall and could see that she was indeed right. 'I'd like that, if you don't mind.'

'There are two, so…not at all.' He handed her the gun, and she put it in her special ECHO. Matt picked up the other one and did the same thing.

They opened a few more chests, picking up other Legendary items, including a Mongul, Bulldog, and a few Equalizers. Many times Lilith had to remind herself that most of this was for the Raiders, and she could not be selfish.

Matt also picked up a Cracked Sash, five Savage Mashers and several Defilers, along with about eight Verucs, and a specialised Gemini laser rifle that had not been seen for a while. Gemini didn't make too many weapons, as they presumably left that to Hyperion, assuming they did indeed work with them in a form of partnership. It would not be surprising if they were.

Lilith found an old Volcano, different in design to Matt's version. There was also two Skullmashers, which she supposed Zer0 and Mordecai would want. She found a Striker shotgun in an old Lance chest, which had been redesigned to look more like Gemini, along with an Ogre and a few Hellfires. There was even a Jakobs Bessie, an incredibly rare Pearlescent weapon. Along with that were about 40 other blues that they picked up each.

They stepped into the automatic sliding panel, and Lilith pressed one of the red arrows on the control panel. The horizontal metal panel shifted to the right. Matt and Lilith stepped inside one of the recesses in the wall, where more chests were, with red energy walls in front. As soon as they passed through, their disguise disappeared, and they returned to their normal forms, although their voice modulator had already been off.

'Looks like a safety measure,' Matt noted, staring at the red energy field. 'We'll have to move quickly.'

'I don't know about that, killer,' Lilith responded. 'Gemini added a lot more chests here.'

'They did,' he confirmed, turning back around. Lilith opened a Gemini/Lance chest, which had a Sledge's Shotgun in it, as well as another Masher, a Legendary Wildcat, and an explosive Tediore Fastball.

'I knew they restocked some of these!' Lilith declared, soaking in the colours of purple and orange. She picked them up.

After a while, they had opened a few more chests, and seen a few more Legendaries. Lilith seemed quite pleased with the arsenal they had just amassed, and was gearing to go to the next recess. Matt checked everything they'd just collected. They both turned to each other and smiled upon realisation that they had found more than enough for the entire Raiders.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' Demanded an obviously pissed off female voice from behind them. Matt and Lilith spun around to seek the owner of the voice. Matt's eyes widened.

Aurora.

She was wearing her usual orange battle armour, with a red coat over it, much like Matt's style of armour. She had the Gemini logo on her breastplate as well, in a white colour so it was easier to spot. And she looked like she was about to die from perplexity.

'Matt?!' Aurora spat out in confusion.

'Er…hey 'Ora…' he gave a nervous smile. 'How's it been?'

'Don't call me that!' She argued defensively. 'We aren't _friends_!' She seemed to cower at the thought of the word. ' _Friends_ don't betray each other!' Aurora slapped him across the face. Lilith hid her slight gasp.

'I didn't betray you, 'Ora!' Matt pleaded.

'Stop calling me that!'

'Jeez, you two definitely are close friends,' Lilith commented. They both ignored her.

'I left the company, that's all,' he lied.

'Don't lie to me!' She'd clearly seen right through him. 'There's another reason!' Matt paused.

'Gemini's lying to you,' he informed her. 'We have reason to believe they're working with Hyperion.'

'No,' Aurora wittered. 'Gemini's never gotten along with Hyperion. Mainly because the entire company's built upon suffering.'

'Then why did they leave me to their Genisys experiments?' He countered darkly. She was visibly taken aback by this, as was Lilith.

'With what happened to you,' Aurora struggled to say. 'Gemini said that Hyperion was going to kill you if they attempted to rescue you.'

'That's bullshit and you know it,' he swore. 'They needed a test subject, so why would they _ever_ want to kill their only healthy one?' Aurora lost her certainty about Gemini due to that idea.

'I'm sorry about what happened to you, I really am,' she apologised. 'But I know Gemini; they'd never want to leave one of their own unless they had to.'

'Explain Gemini Loader bots then!'

'They stole the idea from Hyperion…'

 _Aren't there Torgue bots?_ Lilith thought to herself, but saw it unfit to bring it up.

'And risk a law suit? I don't think so!' Matt bickered. Aurora shook off the point.

'And on that bombshell, since when did you know a Siren?' She pointed angrily and disrespectfully at Lilith.

'Since recently!' He reasoned, and then lowered his volume of voice. 'She's a Vault Hunter. Or at the very least, she used to be.'

'Gemini had always said we are the last Vault Hunters in existence…' Aurora was beginning to think that maybe the Gemini Corporation wasn't so trustworthy after all.

'They lied. I know of _eight_ others besides Lilith here,' he told her. 'Trust me, please. Gemini's not as trustworthy as they first seemed.'

'I don't know…'

'You remember Axton?' Matt asked, to which she nodded. 'Yeah, he never betrayed anyone. He never did anything wrong. The Commando was double crossed by Gemini, making us think he had betrayed the Corporation.'

'And he's alive and well?'

'Pissed off at me, but yes.'

'You can't really blame him, can you?' Lilith said. 'Even though he really should forgive you.'

'The Gemini Corporation took everything from me,' Matt said. 'They murdered my sister…' That last comment elicited silence from both Lilith and Aurora.

'You never said anything about a sister…' Lilith noted in confusion and sadness.

'I thought that was Hyperion,' Aurora reminded them.

'If my suspicions are confirmed about the Hyperion-Gemini partnership, then they knew about it.'

'That's quite a leap to conclusions.'

'Is it?' Matt stubbornly disputed. He shook his head slightly. 'I know, OK? I, myself, woke up yesterday thinking that everything Gemini told me while I was with them was true. At least, weakly so. Now, I'm certain it's the opposite.'

'I want to believe you, Matt, I really do,' Aurora honestly stated. 'But a lot of what you just told me included ifs and maybes, and no real evidence.'

'Do you have access to the Gemini economical structure?' He asked.

'Yeah, why?' She confirmed, taking on a puzzled look.

'Computer: _Access security transaction logs,'_ Matt command. Her bracelet flashed blue, and brought up a hologram of some document.

'Oh, right,' Aurora looked embarrassed. 'It's still programmed to accept your voice commands.'

'Don't ask,' he demanded of Lilith, looking at her contemptuously. She nodded. He walked over to the holographic document and began searching through it. 'Aha!' That made Aurora jump. 'Lemme just access this file…yes…see, here it says that just the other day, Gemini received eighty trillion dollars for, quote, "co-operation" and nothing more.'

'Strange,' She mentioned. 'Economic gains like that would be mentioned and shared upon Gemini's higher-ups…like me.'

'And the sender of this particular nourishment? Hyperion,' He noted triumphantly.

'Seriously?' Aurora leant in for a closer look. She didn't quite know what to think. 'You're…you're right. The dicks didn't even _try_ to hide it.'

'I told you that Gemini's been lying to you. God knows how many other things they've been dishonest about.'

'Matt…I am so sorry.' It was certain that Aurora was being sincere.

'It's OK,' Matt counselled. 'I know how manipulative Gemini can be.' For a minute or two, there was an awkward silence. 'Come with me. We can keep you safe and away from Gemini.'

'You _know_ that _they_ know about my family,' she reminded him. 'They'll kill them if I betray them.'

'Tell them to take an express rocket to Pandora,' Lilith told her. 'And fast.'

'You can convince Gemini you're still on their side long enough for them to get here,' Matt added. 'They'll be safe in Sanctuary, I promise.'

'You swear on your life?' Aurora asked him, looking quite grim.

'Of course! Especially now with all these weapons that we can give to the Raiders.' Aurora thought it over for a moment.

'Ok, I'll go with you,' she permitted. ' _Matty._ ' She smiled a welcoming smile. He sniggered a little.

'Thanks, 'Ora,' Matt replied happily. Aurora laughed a warm laugh, and pulled him into a hug.

'Are you two quite done flirting?' Lilith interrupted.

'We…we weren't flirting!' She insisted, letting go of Matt.

'Definitely not!' Matt backed, thinking of Gaige. 'We're just close friends.'

'Whatever,' Lilith teased, but ultimately turned her attention to more important matters. 'We need to get back to Sanctuary, does anyone have any Eridium?'

'My revolver uses an Eridium shard core,' Aurora told her. Lilith nodded in the style of "that should suit me perfectly." 'I'll be able to replace it later.' She fumbled to remove the shard from her revolver.

'You want to teleport us?' Matt asked, despite already knowing the answer. 'Are you sure that's a good idea?'

'Just to T-Bone Junction,' Lilith responded. 'Trust me, I got this.'

'I would hope so,' Matt said worriedly. Lilith took the Eridium shard from Aurora and absorbed it.

'OK…' Lilith breathed. 'Come on, Lil, you've got this.' Matt hadn't heard her sound so unsure before that she would start speaking to herself. As she began focussing, purple energy began emanating from her hands. There was a purple flash of light that blanketed and almost blinded Aurora and Matt.

A few moments later and they were standing in the T-Bone Junction, just beside the fast travel. Matt smiled in reassurance that Lilith had succeeded in bringing them to T-Bone. Aurora blinked a few times to make certain that they were in the right place – and that her limbs were also in the right place.

'Well done, Lil,' Matt tested out the nickname. He'd heard it before, but wasn't sure if she would be fine with him calling her by it. Lilith didn't seem to mind that he was calling her that. 'We made it.'

'Thanks, killer.'

'Killer…?' Aurora seemed quite confused by the choice of name.

'Nickname,' Lilith brushed off.

'I'm gonna tell Gaige that we're coming back,' Matt told her, reaching for his ECHOear. 'She'll want that drink soon.' Aurora mouthed to Lilith, "who is Gaige?", and she mouthed back "another Vault Hunter." She nodded, understanding her answer.

'Hey Gaige!'

'Hey, Matt!'

'We're coming back now,' he told her. 'And we have another friend of mine.'

'Cool!' She exclaimed. 'Who is it?'

'Another Vault Hunter. You'll like her. Gemini associate. _Formerly_.'

'OK.' Gaige started to feel a little annoyed, although she wasn't too certain why. 'You still owe me that drink, by the way.' Matt smiled.

'Don't worry, I haven't forgotten,' he reassured. Gaige ended the call as Matt began typing to the interface to send them to Sanctuary. He was glad Gaige had granted him access to the location.

Matt pressed the button, and expanded the parameters of the people who would be travelling. The Anomaly pressed the button, and within moments, their bodies were deconstructed and reconstructed inside Sanctuary's central building.

 _Aurora certainly does not like making new friends; she has always been comfortable with Violet, Arcturus, Duke and the rest_.

 _But what about Axton?_ Matt shuddered.

* * *

 **And there is Aurora, one of Matt's close Vault Hunter friends. I knew it was fairly obvious she was going to be introducing given how much she is referenced and how much Matt thinks about her.**

 **Also, Arcturus, Violet and Duke are other Gemini Vault Hunters, and they'll appear later. (I'm not sure how late that will be in terms of chapters, but it** ** _will_** **happen)**

 **Anyways, I am continuing to write the next chapters, which I plan on being longer as well. (** ~ **4000 words). This also means the updates will be slower too.**


	6. Follow Through

**So, here we are again! With a couple days, I was able to write this chapter. 4k, so a decent length. I don't want to make it yo-yo up and down, but I am sure there will be some short chapters and some long. Anyways, Aurora arrives in Sanctuary…and Axton's there too, so this should be fun.**

 **Not to mention Gaige wants a drink and a test run with Deathtrap...**

* * *

 **Chapter Six: Follow Through  
**

* * *

'We're here,' Matt told Aurora, who had covered her eyes again. She hugged him again, tightly, but briefly.

'Thanks, Matty,' she thanked again. He tried not to laugh over her constant use of the nickname.

'Er…Lilith, can you welcome her to everyone?' Matt asked her. 'I have a drink to get.'

'Sure, it's no problem, killer.' Lilith ushered Aurora to Crimson Raider HQ. It was still quite early in the morning, around 4 AM, but Lilith suggested she wait there for everyone else to show up. Until then, she could always talk with Lilith, not that she was exactly sociable in any way.

Matt ran over to Gaige's house and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, Gaige the Mechromancer finally did answer the door. She smiled at him, and gave him a hug.

'What was that for?' He chuckled.

'I don't know really,' she admitted.

'You wanted that drink?' Matt reminded her. 'Will you be getting root beer then?'

'What's wrong with that?' Gaige playfully punched him on the shoulder. 'Just because I don't have normal beer…'

'Hey, I'm used to Zaford beer, so…' Matt confessed. Gaige chuckled.

'You should try the drinks at Moxxi's bar!' She insisted. 'Since that's where we're going.'

'Come on then,' Matt beckoned for her to follow, and Gaige grabbed his arm, resting her head on his shoulder, and they began walking towards the bar. Aurora observed this from the balcony and briefly frowned in slight jealousy, but shook the feeling off.

Moxxi's bar was around the corner, just beside Crazy Earl's black market. The guy who ran the black market was visibly insane, so Matt often elected not to go near him or his little "shop" of sorts. He knew about the black market before he had even came the Sanctuary, because he went to New Haven once to seek out a Dahl operative who was hiding out there. Matt vaguely remembered talking to Earl to get some information from him, but he seemed more interested in a Skag called Skrappy.

The Hunter suddenly realised just how many times the Gemini Corporation had sent him, Aurora and the rest on missions pertaining specifically to Dahl. They had never really been fans of the Dahl Corporations, or their weaponry, and the existence of the Lost Legion certainly did not aid in easing that. They never had qualms with other weapons corporations (apart from what they claimed about Hyperion) such as Vladof, Tediore, Torgue, Maliwan, Jakobs, Atlas – when they existed – and what _was_ S & S Munitions. They were Bandit now.

He'd have to talk about it to Aurora later. Maybe Dahl and Gemini had some kind of rivalry. If they did, Matt certainly knew nothing about it. Just like how he initially didn't know about Hyperion's apparent partnership with the Gemini Corporation.

Gaige and Matt finally made their way into Moxxi's bar. He looked around the scene, listening to the music playing on loop. Two citizens were attempting their luck on the slot machines, and constantly putting money into the slot, despite achieving nothing worthwhile. Every so often, they would score a white rarity gun or maybe some Eridium, but it did not cover the expense of using the machine.

Without a second thought, Gaige brought Matt over to the counter, where there were two seats free. They both sat down and a woman with sizeable bust approached them. Matt was not paying attention to the attractiveness of the woman, especially her bust, as he knew he had superior priorities. He immediately presumed this was Moxxi.

'Hey, sugar,' Moxxi greeted Gaige.

'Hi Moxxi.'

'And who is this handsome young man here?' She asked seductively. 'Is he your new boyfriend?' Gaige went red.

'No!' She objected. 'This is Matt, a Vault Hunter. And we're _just_ friends.'

'Uh-huh?' Moxxi hummed, not seeming too convinced.

'Just…' She was lost for words. 'Can I get a root beer?'

'Certainly, sugar,' she agreed, turning her attention to Matt. 'And what can I get you, sugar?'

'I'll just have some normal beer, thanks,' he requested. Moxxi nodded. 'It'll do me just fine.' She turned around and began preparing the drinks.

'So who's this new person you brought back?' She asked, curious.

'Her name is Aurora,' he told her. Gaige sighed slightly upon hearing use of "her" in that sentence. 'We worked together a lot during our time at Gemini.'

'You both worked at Gemini as Vault Hunters?'

'Well, now, yes, I suppose you could use the past tense in that sentence for both of us… she just left the Corporation to come with me.' Gaige did not like the sound of her, but wasn't sure why. 'We were quite close friends back in the day, and I suppose we've now rekindled our relationship.'

'Your drinks,' Moxxi announced, putting down two large glasses on the counter in front of them.

'Thanks,' said both Gaige and Matt in quick succession. Moxxi nodded and walked away, in order to greet another customer.

'I'll have to talk to her later,' Gaige commented. She drew her attention back to them. 'But for now, we're going to enjoy this.' She picked up her glass, which prompted Matt to nod and do the same. They touched glasses, making a clinging sound, as if having just made a toast.

'Ah, that's nice,' he complimented. 'You know, I _am_ getting closer to the Vault. Now that 'Ora's here' – Gaige frowned in annoyance at the use of a nickname – 'I can add the data from her Vault Instincts to my own. Not to mention our stint in T-Bone had also added more to the Instincts.'

'I know you want to find that Vault before that Caine guy does,' Gaige noted. 'You know, you don't really talk about Caine that much.'

'That's because there's nothing to say really. He's not like Aurora. Caine wouldn't care if Gemini's working with Hyperion _or_ that they've been lying to him.'

'You said he was a lot like Handsome Jack.'

'Because it's true,' he repeated, pausing only to take another gulp from his beer. 'Caine right now only cares about two things: the Vault, and bringing me in. Dead _or_ alive, that is.'

'Well, he isn't going to kill you. Not while I'm here!' Gaige reassured him. Matt laughed a nostalgic chuckle.

'You sound a lot like my sister,' he remarked.

'You have a sister?' Gaige sat up, paying more attention.

' _Had_ , _'_ he corrected. She immediately caught on.

'What happened to her?'

'Hyperion.' He shuffled in his seat. 'And I guess now Gemini too.' Gaige mouthed an understanding "oh" to that.

'What was she like?' She wondered.

'Lovely,' Matt answered, fondly looking back on his past.

'You would have loved her. She was so spritely and upbeat, even in the worst of times. Then Hyperion came along. They kidnapped me while I was at home, where my sister just so happened to be visiting. They shot her twice in the head, and then knocked me out and brought me to that operating table.' Matt assumed a downcast, dark expression of guilt.

'I'm sorry, Matt…' Gaige apologised, wishing she had not asked.

'It's not your fault,' he assured her. 'It's mine. I knew working for Gemini was dangerous, and I knew taking a side mission against Hyperion would send them after me. But you know what? I said, "fuck it" and decided to against my better judgement and did it anyway.'

'Matt,' she put her hand on his. 'You couldn't have known that was going to happen. You can't predict the future.'

'Maybe, but I could have _prevented it_. You see, it is _reckless_ moves like those that leave your loved ones vulnerable and unprotected.' He wiped tears from his eyes before they could fully come to fruition.

'What about the rest of your family?' Gaige blurted out, instantly regretting asking him. 'Sorry.'

'It's fine,' Matt guaranteed, taking a deep breath. 'Well, after I escaped Hyperion, I found out that my family had applied to disown me following my sister's death – no, _murder._ ' Gaige seemed like she was about to spit out her root beer in disbelief. A humorous spittake, perhaps. 'I had to delve into Gemini studies instead. They set me up with a safehouse, since my original home was funded by my parents, which is about the only kind thing Gemini did for me. I left the Corporation a few weeks later.' As he paused, Gaige attempted to take in what she just heard. 'After I gained knowledge of a new Vault, I set out to find it. That's how I ended up on Pandora.'

'You need to get over it,' she told him. 'Because you can't blame yourself.'

'Thanks, Gaige,' he acknowledged. 'You always know just what to say.' He tightened her grip on his hand.

As if to interrupt their moment, Aurora walked in at the very second. She discerned the hand-holding and was not especially a fan of it. Why was this girl – who she assumed was Gaige – hogging him so much? Aurora had not seen Matt in quite a while, and they had only just now re-established their close friendship, yet Matt seemed more interested in hanging out with a girl he had only known for a couple days. It annoyed her.

'Hey, Matty,' she greeted, walking towards him. The New Hunter had intentionally used the nickname to incite some form of jealousy in Gaige. Instead, she just frowned.

'Oh, hey 'Ora,' Matt returned, letting go of Gaige's hand. Gaige didn't like how he used that nickname. Or how he said it – so fondly, as though it was some kind of inside joke between the two that the Mechromancer would certainly not understand.

'"Matty"?' She immediately questioned.

'Close friends give each other a nickname,' Aurora immediately rationalised. She then lowered her volume of voice so only Gaige would hear her. 'If you and Matt were close he'd do the same for you.' The Mechromancer thought she saw a flicker of spitefulness in her disposition as she told her that, but she couldn't be certain.

'I thought you were going to stay in Crimson Raider HQ until everyone else shows up?' Matt supposed.

'Well it's half four right now, sunrise hasn't come yet,' she reminded him. 'And, well, _excuse me_ for wanting to spend some time with my _best friend…_ ' Her emphasis on those last two words was clearly directed towards Gaige, exemplified as she briefly glanced at her to show it off.

'Fair point,' he shrugged. 'You can sit next to Gaige.' Aurora decided against this and told him he'd rather sit next to him.

'And _who_ is _this?'_ Moxxi asked, walking back over to look at Aurora.

'This is Aurora,' Matt introduced. 'I'm sure you can guess this woman is Moxxi.'

'That's me, sugar,' she confirmed. 'So what might you be, Aurora? Matt's girlfriend?'

'No!' Matt objected. 'Not every girl I know is potentially my girlfriend! Right, 'Ora?' He turned to her, and she weakly nodded.

'Haha!' Gaige laughed. 'You need to stop doing that, Moxxi!'

'What can I get you, sugar?' Moxxi asked Aurora, shaking off the comedic comment.

'You have club soda?' She asked. Moxxi nodded, and immediately began preparing it.

'Still going sober then?' Matt presumed.

'Yeah, still not a fan of alcohol,' she confirmed. 'And judging by how quickly you've finished your drink, I'd say you love it.'

'I do quite like alcohol, to be honest.' Moxxi handed Aurora her club soda, and she thanked her for the service. She took a sip, enjoying the taste of the soda.

'So what is it that you can do, Aurora?' Gaige asked her.

'I have an Eridium core revolver. It grants me more alien abilities with the revolver.' She took out her trusty silver revolver and exposed the newly-replaced Eridium shard core.

'Woah…' Gaige examined, basking in the purple light. She reached out to touch it, but Aurora slapped her hand, causing her retract it.

'No touching!' She insisted.

'I thought it was perfectly safe…' Matt thought aloud. Aurora took on a surprised look.

'Oh, well… _you_ can touch it,' she said.

'But, you just said –' Gaige began, her face contorting into minor anger.

'Never mind,' Aurora interrupted, closing up her revolver and putting it back away.

'Anyway…' Matt backpedalled. 'Gaige here is also a Vault Hunter. She has this awesome robot called Deathtrap which she can summon in combat. So cool.' Gaige nodded in a manner of confirming everything he just said, so that she could show off to Aurora how awesome Matt thought she was. Aurora smirked at Gaige when Matt turned away from her.

'Oh yeah!' She remembered. 'You need to help test it out with me.'

'You're right, yes!' Matt realised. Gaige sat there, staring at him. 'You mean _now_?'

'If it isn't too much trouble,' Gaige hoped.

'Erm, I guess,' Matt guessed. He turned to Aurora. 'You OK with that?'

'Of course,' she replied, although not altogether believing it. 'But we'll hang out later, right?'

'Yeah, sure,' he confirmed, making it sound obvious. He grabbed his coat and swung it around his shoulders. He followed Gaige out the door. Aurora looked on gloomily, and sipping her club soda lightly. Moxxi approached her.

'Poor kid doesn't have clue, does he, sugar?' She detected. Aurora nodded.

'He's a great guy, but sometimes he can just be so…oblivious.'

* * *

Matt was actually quite excited to test out Deathtrap, and how he (it? He was never sure how to refer to it) was functioning. Gaige seemed especially eager, considering how it received that aero-jet upgrade a couple hours ago. According to Gaige, the rest of the Terrestrial Modifier was used to help digistruct other "accessories" – more like weapons – on the robot, but Matt wasn't too convinced on the basis that the Modifier isn't solely used for digistruction. Either she had reinvented it, or she was trying to impress him.

Gaige eventually directed him back to the plaza where he had initially fought Lilith. He was still reeling from the shock that he won that fight, but ultimately knew it was ineffective to rub it in Lil's face. Or anyone's, for that matter. No one would appreciate it, and Matt did not want to come off as a douchebag. He was aware how oblivious he could be to those kinds of things.

'Righty,' Gaige addressed. Matt frowned at her use of such a childish word, but he supposed it was to come from an eighteen-year-old. Then again, he didn't say those kinds of things, and he was only two years older than her. 'Deathtrap is ready to go. You might want to step back.'

'You want me to fight him?' He suddenly got a little worried.

'Relax, I've set him to stun. He'll just try to momentarily disorientate you,' she promised. ''Sides, you won against Lilith.'

'OK.'

'Go!' Gaige activated her robotic arm gauntlet, and Deathtrap was quickly digistructed from it, and it appeared, swiftly hovering in the air on those Arc-X jets. 'Deathtrap: stun.'

She pointed at Matt, and the robot's eye turned red and shot a few energy blasts at him. They were quick, but he knew how to be quicker. Upon slowing time, he easily dodged the blasts. The robot activated his claws, which slid from its fingers and electrified them. If touched by them, Matt would get a medium-danger electric shock. Nothing major.

 _This is too easy,_ Matt unpleasantly thought, as he dodged a charge from the robot and pushed it back. _Maybe if I don't go so hard on it, the bot might get me, and Gaige will be happy._

Without warning, the robot went invisible – Deceptor style – and could not be seen, not even for distortions in light. Matt could feel where the robot was, and could sense its claws in the slowed down time zone. He looked at Gaige, who was frozen mid-cheer. As Deathtrap went in for a slash, Matt evaded it, but allowed the robot to scrape his shoulder. Believing no threat was to come, he allowed Deathtrap to go in for a push, pinning him against a wall. Even though he could get out of it, the bot _did_ have an iron grip.

Then some irregularity occurred. For whatever reason, the robot then glitched, and switched back to full assault mode. Instead of stunning him, the D374-TP robot instead sliced right into his left shoulder, going right through his shield, with its corresponding claw. Matt cried out in pain as blood began seeping out of his slightly lighter navy shirt.

'What the hell?' Gaige screamed out in angst. 'Deathtrap what are you doing?' She finally noticed the blood coming out from where her little robot had stabbed him. 'Oh my God…'

'Gaige!' Matt called out, screaming through the pain. 'Stop this damn thing! Have you got a deactivation code?'

'I think so!' She racked her brains for the right one, thinking for a few seconds.

'Not to be intrusive or anything, but can you please do it quickly?'

'What the hell is going on here?' A voice demanded. Gaige briefly turned to see Maya, who was looking visibly distressed. 'Your screaming woke me up!'

Had he not been in intense pain right now, Matt would've definitely joked to himself that he woke another person up with screaming but this time he was screaming for a completely different reason.

'Maya! Help!' Gaige called out. 'Deathtrap's gone crazy!' Maya ran over to her and observed the scene.

'Yeah no kidding…' she whispered to herself, as Deathtrap plunged his other claws into Matt's ribs.

'Gah!' He yelled out in pain.

'I've got my Phaselock!' Maya informed both of them, as her hand glowed blue, and ball of purple energy appeared around Deathtrap, preventing it from moving further. Matt was finally let go from Deathtrap's grip, and clutched his wounds. 'I can't hold this forever! You've got a code to deactivate this thing right?'

'Erm…yes!' Finally, Gaige came up with it. 'Deathtrap: Initiate Security Deactivation Code! Designation: 4856apple7y934kaster67!'

'Security code accepted,' said Deathtrap, in a steely mechanical voice. 'Dedigistructing. Shutting down.' Maya let go of the robot from within her Phaselock's grasp, and the robot deconstructed itself back into Gaige's gauntlet.

'Ah, that's better,' Matt laughed, still groaning in pain. Maya and Gaige immediately ran over to him, to investigate his wounds. Maya pried his hands away from the wounds, and found both of them stained in blood, as well as parts of his clothes centring around the wounds. Blood was still pumping out of both of them.

'If I take you to Doctor Zed, he should be able to heal you up,' she guaranteed. 'Good thing Lilith made him clean the place.' Matt tried to walk, but immediately dropped to the ground, whereupon Maya and Gaige helped him to his thought, and wrapped his arms around their shoulders to provide support. Maya did not care that she was touching Matt's rib laceration, but was less than pleased that she'd recently washed their leotard-based armour prior to this.

'Matt, I'm so sorry,' Gaige apologised. 'I didn't know that was going to happen.'

'It's OK, Gaige,' Matt comforted her, gritting his teeth through the pain. 'Accidents like that happen.'

'You just need to iron out some kinks,' Maya told her.

'I don't get it, you were dodging all of Deathtrap's attacks, and you predicted where it would become visible again after becoming invisible. How did it get you?' Gaige had seen right through his act.

'Well…' Matt forced a smile, which was certainly not aided by the two injuries he had just sustained. 'I may or may not have _let_ Deathtrap hit me.'

'What?' Gaige could not quite believe what she was hearing. 'Why?'

'Because…erh,' he groaned in pain against, this time from his solely his shoulder. 'Deathtrap wasn't going to hit me. He would certainly get a bandit…or maybe Axton…but not me. My Chronokinesis made it so easy to win, so I wanted to make the fight a little fairer. That's why I let him push me and then pin me. Everything following that I didn't account for.'

'You didn't need to do that,' Gaige told him. 'I chose you _because_ he wasn't going to hit you. I needed to test Deathtrap's reflexes.'

'Oh…' Matt fought off the urge to cry from his gashes. 'Then, I'm sorry.'

'You don't need to apologise,' she responded. 'It's me who should be apologising.' Before Matt could tell her the opposite, Maya butted in.

'It's neither of yours' faults,' she interrupted. 'You both need to get your minds out of the gutter.'

She brought him through to Doctor Zed's, opening the door and addressing the doctor.

'You free?' She asked him.

'I am, certainly,' Zed replied.

'Good, because I'd like you treat these wounds of our friend Matt here.' Zed went over to observe them both.

'Yeah, OK,' he observed. 'He's punctured an artery. That's why he's bleeding a lot. This will take more than just a few hypos. Set him on the operating table over there.' Gaige was happy to observe how clean the clinic was now. That way, Matt wasn't going to get infected by contaminated blood; whereas he would've, had he suffered this injury a couple weeks ago. Gaige and Maya carefully set him down on the table, as Matt began taking off his coat, shirt, and armour plates.

'Man this hurts…' Matt murmured.

'You gotta be more careful, son.'

'I didn't do this to myself!' Matt pleaded, outraged at how Zed was insinuating that he was reckless. 'Some killer robot did it!'

'Sure it did, son.'

'Actually,' Gaige piped up. 'That's kinda true.'

'Right, yeah,' Zed accepted. 'Cos you got that Deathtrap do-hickey in your arm.'

She shuddered briefly at the mention of Deathtrap.

'Right, now that he's here, I can begin my little operation,' Zed concluded. 'You two can go now.' Maya began to leave, but Gaige did not.

'Actually, can I…stay here?' She asked. Maya stared at her confusedly. 'Just to, um…watch.'

'That's sweet,' Maya teased. Gaige ignored her and instead sought out for Zed's reply. He shrugged.

'I guess, yeah,' he accepted. Maya began walking out the door.

'Wait, Maya?' Matt called out, looking up from the table.

'Yeah, what?'

'There's this girl in Moxxi's bar. Crimson-orange battle armour, like my navy blue armour, with long brown hair. Her name's Aurora. Could you…tell her that I'm here? She'll be wondering why I hadn't come back yet.'

'What's the significance of her?' Maya wondered.

'She's another Vault Hunter that's come to join us,' he informed her. 'We both used to work at Gemini. We were going to wait until everyone was up before introducing her.'

'They're close friends,' Gaige whispered into her ear. Maya nodded.

'Sure, I'll find her.' Maya walked out the door and made a sharp left turn to Moxxi's bar. Zed immediately began administering painkillers and antiseptics to the two lesions on Matt's body. Gaige sat down on a nearby chair. He revelled in the fact that the pain was nulled now, especially since he was probably going to feel a bit sore later. Certainly, he really wasn't going to enjoy that. No one would.

Matt looked at Zed as he began applying these drugs, and he fought off the flashing images of Hyperion scientists applying similar drugs way back. So he thought of something more pleasant. Initially, his sister came to mind, but soon his mind replaced that with the shocking memory of her getting shot in the face. Finally, he came around to looking at Gaige, which Matt supposed would aid in easing the hallucinations and images sporadically before his eyes.

'Son, this might sting a bit,' Zed warned him. He injected some kind of Anshin hypo into his body, causing it to tense up in pain, which numbed quickly. 'If your body feels numb, that'll be the effects of this here "super-hypo" thingy. It's mainly used for more… _serious_ wounds, but really, I just use it when I don't want to waste a bunch of hypos. That Anshin stuff can get quite expensive, so it's better now to use this.'

'Matty?'

Matt looked up.

 _She never stops worrying about me, ha-ha,_ he laughed to himself.

* * *

 **Sure, a bit of an uneventful chapter. Setting up a love triangle is the most apparent thing going on in this chapter, but there's more to it.**

 **If Gaige is going to survive the fight for the Vault, then she needs to iron out the kinks in her robot. She generally doesn't like to do it and prefers to give upgrades to Deathtrap rather than improve upon what's already there. So I felt that if her reluctance to fix them meant that someone she cared about got hurt, then that would provide her with the motivation to do it.**

 **And also so I could further Matt's story, because I guess it wasn't tragic enough, :). Also, it won't be long before they target a place for a new shield. Trust me, they'll need it later…**


	7. Scorn

**Another set-up chapter, I'm afraid. This will lead into them finding better shield parts for Sanctuary. Once that's all done and dusted, they will completely focus on the Vault. I will duly explain how this Vault will work too.**

 **I also edited some of the chapters to add some proper line breaks, as well as touch up on the grammar. I even added a little cover image. You might've noticed.**

 **Anyways…**

* * *

 **Chapter Seven: Scorn**

* * *

Aurora was standing worriedly by the door. She ran over to him.

'What happened?'

'Just a little incident with Gaige's robot,' Matt told her.

'This is _your_ fault?' She shot an aggressive look at her.

'It wasn't her fault,' he argued. 'Just a little glitch that _no one_ could have accounted for.' Gaige threw a triumphant look at her. Aurora finally got a closer look at the gashes as Doctor Zed moved back to get some proper bandages. Her eyes widened.

'Gaige's dumb bot did that to you?' She insulted.

'It's not dumb,' Gaige and Matt responded in unison. Gaige laughed and smiled at him, which made Aurora clench her fist in anger.

'Sorry,' Aurora replied, although not completely meaning it. 'But it did that to you?'

'Yes,' Matt answered. 'Though it was accidental.'

'Excuse me,' Zed asked Aurora. 'I need to apply bandages, do you mind moving, please?'

'Of course,' she smiled, stepping out of the way. Doctor Zed took Matt's shoulder first and wrapped one his bandages around it, covering up the injury. It was immediately stained with blood, but the bleeding had clearly eased. He hastily unwound another roll and bandaged his ribs.

'Right, there we go,' he finished. 'You should be fine. You might feel a little sore, but other than that, you're good to go out in the field.'

'Thank you,' Matt acknowledged, sliding off the table to sit on it, and putting his armour and coat back on.

'It's no problem,' he welcomed. He turned to Aurora. 'So I hear you're a new resident?'

'Very new, yes,' she returned.

'Interesting. I was certain all the living arrangements were full, after Matt came in.' Aurora's eyes widened again.

'I didn't even think about that!' She admitted. 'Where am I going to live?'

'We'll have to ask Lilith,' Matt suggested. 'She has an idea of Sanctuary's structure.'

'I'll go find her,' she said, turning around to walk through the door.

'And avoid Axton if he starts eyeballing you with anger,' he advised. Aurora nodded. 'Bye 'Ora.'

'See ya, Matty.' She left, and Gaige and sat on the now clean operating table next to him.

'I'm gonna have to do a lot of work on Deathtrap to fix that glitch,' she sorrowfully commented. Matt put his arm around her.

'It's nothing that major,' he reassured her. 'It won't take long. I'll help you, if you want.'

'I don't know,' Gaige responded. 'I don't want it to hurt anyone I care about.'

'I understand what you mean,' Matt replied. 'But you can't let your abilities go down the drain. Deathtrap's one of the most impressive creations I have ever seen, so don't give up on it.'

'You really think it's that impressive?' She couldn't quite believe this.

'Of course!' He told her. 'Come on, get to work on that little bot.' Matt smiled at her. She smiled back.

'I think I'll just do it on my own,' Gaige said.

'That's OK,' he said. 'Besides, I have to go sort out 'Ora's living occupation. I'll just have to go find Lilith.' Gaige found herself a little annoyed at the use of the nickname again, but was adamant that she wasn't jealous. Matt began to get back up off the table, and almost stumbled, but managed to maintain his balance.

'You got your balance?' She asked, to which Matt nodded. 'OK, good. Bye, Matt.'

'See you later, Gaige.' She beamed back at him, and walked back onto the street. As she left, Matt looked on, before stepping out the door. He watched her leave to go to her home. The Pandoran Sun was finally starting to come up.

Matt walked towards Headquarters, intending to find out if everyone had finally awoken from their slumber. Likely so, considering how Vault Hunters had a tendency to get up early. Although, Matt himself wasn't quite the best example to go by, seen as though his sleeping patterns were quite irregular.

Making his way to the base, there was a thought in his mind that maybe Aurora might have to share her house with someone. Matt supposed that she and Gaige were getting along well enough to share. But Aurora seemed to prefer spending time with him than looking at the situation in retrospect.

Brushing away these mostly unimportant thoughts, he stepped into Crimson Raider HQ. He observed Tannis standing in her small office, again talking into an ECHO recorder. Matt ignored her ramblings and headed straight upstairs to check on the rest of the Vault Hunters.

'Hey, killer!' Lilith called. She was looking at him. Everyone except Gaige was standing around the scanner room, staring at the large body of weapons placed there. Mordecai and Zer0 both seemed to enjoy the abundance of sniper rifles in the pile. Maya was visibly eyeballing the elemental SMGs, while Salvador appeared to be happy with just about every weapon. Matt supposed Brick would not be using many of the weapons, considering the kind of fighter he was. Axton remained silent, but still picked up a Veruc.

'Yeah?'

'Have you got the rest of those guns on you?' She asked. Matt had almost entirely forgotten about the weapons that they were about to distribute to everyone. He supposed that, in the chaos of what just happened, it had slipped his mind.

'Erm…yes, it's here,' Matt pulled out his specialized storage ECHO from his back pocket. He could observe that on the scanner table, Lilith had emptied hers and dumped the weapons on the table. He walked over to everyone and emptied the contents of it. A red smiley face appeared on Zer0's visor as soon as he saw the Bessie sniper rifle.

'Easy, amigo,' Mordecai cautioned him. 'Most of these are for the Crimson Raider foot soldiers.' Zer0 nodded and picked up only the Bessie.

'This new instrument / Shall create a symphony / Of blood and entrails,' he proudly declared.

'Whatever you say…' Maya mumbled, picking up a Hellfire.

'You want any of these, cúmbila?' Salvador asked Matt, before picking up the Mongul rocket launcher.

'No, Lilith and I already picked out ours,' he responded, pulling out his new Chimera pistol. 'I quite like this one; I'll have to modify it to include slag too…'

'Maybe some other time,' Lilith told him, putting her hand on his shoulder.

'Hey, Matty!' Aurora came up the stairs and enveloped him in a hug. Everyone immediately drew their attention upon her, most of them possessing eyes of curiosity.

''Ora!' He called, carefully moving backwards to look at her, while still holding her. 'I thought you were going to look for Lilith?'

'I went to get you first,' she admitted. Before Matt could demand why, everyone else butted in.

'And who the hell is this, amigo?' Mordecai questioned.

'"Matty"?' Axton immediately queried, clearly not fond of the nickname, but still recognising it. He turned around to see Aurora. 'Jesus, Aurora now too?'

'Another ex-Gemini huh, compañero?' Sal figured out. ''Nother Vault Hunter?'

'The last time I saw you, _Aurora_ ,' Axton emphasised his disgust of the name. 'You were a prison warden.'

'Things change,' she replied.

'She left _that_ job to go more freelance,' Matt added.

'Another lamb to the slaughter, eh? HAHAHAHAHA!' Brick laughed. Matt shot a disgustedly confused look at him. 'Right. Never mind, slab.'

'I'm not a slab,' he grumbled quietly. 'Whatever.'

'Point is: she's just another person who went after me!' Axton argued.

'For once in your life Axton,' Maya addressed. 'Shut the fuck up.' He immediately shut his mouth. Matt nodded respectively at her again, to which she returned.

'Cut her some slack, her parents are in danger from Gemini now,' he informed everyone. 'They have to move to Pandora.'

'They're on their way,' Aurora notified them. 'Hopefully Gemini hasn't figured out that I'm not working for them yet.'

'We are fighting Hyperion as well as Gemini now,' Lilith said. 'We're going to have a lot of work ahead of us.'

'You said it, chica,' Salvador confirmed.

'Aurora: go distribute these weapons to the Raiders'.' She grumbled, but ultimately consented to do so. 'Trust me; they'll accept you after that.'

'Fine,' she responded. Aurora turned to look at Matt. 'See you later, Matty.' She went to pick up the weapons, taking out her own storage ECHO. Within moments, her ECHO was full. She cited that she'd return later to pick up the rest. Aurora walked away to give the Raiders their weapons.

'Matty, huh?' Maya joked.

'You have no idea how awkward it would get with those two flirting…' Axton remembered, placing his hand to his forehead in disgust.

'It wasn't flirting for fuck's sake!' Matt explained, actually beginning to get annoyed by the obvious teasing.

'Sure, kid,' Axton replied. Matt thought he saw a hint of warmth and friendship in his eyes, but it snapped back to disgust and hate before he could fully register it.

'That's…cute,' Maya added, putting a hand on his shoulder. Matt frowned at her, annoyed still.

'Anyway,' Lilith interrupted. Matt was glad she was changing the subject to something else. 'Matt: you may have completed your initiation, what with our fight and that mission, but there's one extra thing.'

'What might that be?' He immediately queried.

'Another fight,' Lilith replied. 'But not against me.'

'Then who am I fighting?' Matt wondered, cycling through all the Vault Hunters that might be chosen for this particular task.

'You'll find out,' Lilith arbitrarily told him, smiling in triumph of knowing something surprising that he didn't. 'Just go to plaza where we fought yesterday.' Matt nodded, walked back away towards it. 'Everyone else: make sure you got your weapons with you too.'

'What?' Mordecai clearly had no idea what she wanted them for.

'A full-scale fight, yes? / You must be suffering from / Some delirium,' Zer0 recognised.

'You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, right?' Maya added worriedly.

'What do you mean by that, amiga?' Sal prompted.

'Just do it, OK?' Lilith commanded.

'This should be a good fight then!' Brick added, excitedly.

'Great…' Axton thought aloud.

'Just one moment,' Matt said, going downstairs to get to his house. 'I got to follow through on a little something, I'll be there soon.'

'Where you going, killer?' Lilith wondered.

'I have a workshop in my house, apparently,' he told them, before wandering off.

About 15 minutes later, everyone had made their way to the plaza again, with Matt standing disconcertedly in the middle just by Scooter's garage. He made a mental note to perhaps to talk to the guy sometimes, maybe to tell him that he should probably edit some of the catchphrases that his machines would emit when someone entered the immediate vicinity of them. They were never too welcoming and often kind of stupid. Or at least, that was his opinion.

'I don't get it,' Matt addressed Lilith. 'Who am I fighting?'

'You're not fighting me. And you aren't fighting one of us,' she told him. 'You're fighting all of us. Besides me, of course.' Matt's brow twisted in confusion. Maya's suspicions had been confirmed.

'You're kidding right?' He affronted, angry and perplexed at the same time. 'I'm not some God among men! I won't last two seconds while fighting all of you!'

'You didn't think you'd last with me, and you won that fight,' she reminded him.

'You don't seriously think he's _that_ powerful do you, Lil?' Mordecai asked her.

'We're about to find out.'

'So it continues / The Anomaly will fight / And show his power,' Zer0 observed.

'You better be sure about this, Lilith?' Maya threatened. She glanced at Axton, who seemed to be unsurprised that Matt would face such a challenge. 'Why are you so OK with this?'

'Because I know Matt Rye better than you,' he showed off. 'I know how this'll go.'

'Whatever,' Maya murmured to him, walking away to stand beside Lilith.

'I am going to enjoy this, compañero!' Salvador revelled.

'This is a bad idea…' Matt muttered. 'Fine. I'll do this. Just don't be surprised if this ends with me needing surgery.'

 _Look at that idiot being modest,_ Axton thought laughably. _Real smooth._

'Good, because I want all of you to go as hard as you can at him,' Lilith ordered. 'No holding back.'

Everyone got into their positions, pulling out their weapons. Matt swung out his Maggie revolver and nothing else, slightly confusing Maya as to why he would not use a more diversified set of weapons. Matt knew he was not going to find this battle easy, as he had emphasised the hopelessness of the situation, yet he decided one weapon was suitable for use.

 _Let it be, I guess,_ she supposed.

Matt assumed a cautionary position, to be aware of his surroundings, as the other Vault Hunters slowly began to swarm around him.

'On go,' Lilith told them.

There were a few minutes where Matt thought about how he was going to go about this. He wondered how on Earth he was going to win this fight. Anomaly or not, no one can fight this many Vault Hunters at once. Even Handsome Jack would have a rough time. And Matt's Chronokinesis ability would not help him too much, because he would need to focus on all 6 of them at once. Their skill sets varied greatly. Some of them preferred to get in up and close, while others preferred long distance, and a few of them morphed the two to create a more irregular and unpredictable pattern.

 _It is what it is,_ he settled.

'Go!' She called out.

The Vault Hunters began their assault on their new friend. His arm swirled with crimson energy.

Matt immediately slowed down time to survey his surroundings properly. Bullets began flying towards him at a rapid pace. He moved out of the way of the, moving them so that they would instead hit someone else. He lined up the bullet's trajectory to hit Brick and Sal. Salvador was already gunzerking, and using two Jakobs Gatling guns in order to fire as many bullets at him as possible. In order to prevent stressing his body out too much, the Anomaly ran over to the Gunzerker, and misdirected his weapons, causing him to lose his balance and start to topple.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Axton beginning to throw down his turret, his metal extension pad flying out of his hand. Matt caught the pad before it could land, and threw it at an unsuspecting Brick. It went flying back towards him, about to hit him in the face. He was sure to shoot Axton's knees to weaken them.

Before he could observe his handiwork, the Vault Hunter noticed the beginnings of a purple ball forming around him. He looked to Maya to see her tattoos glowing blue.

Her Phaselock.

Matt began running slowly, allowing for her ball to keep up with him. The young man rushed Mordecai, his arms now brightening into a brighter red than before, and pushing the quickly-materialising ball away. He sped up time for a few seconds, long enough to see that Mordecai was now trapped in the ball, not him. Matt shot three times at him, resulting in eighteen bullets flying towards the Sniper in slow motion.

There was a feeling of cold metal on his neck. Matt turned his head to see that Zer0 was holding a gun to his back of it. He slowed time even further, and moved around him, grabbed the gun and throwing it away. The Assassin almost instantly disappeared, which surprised him how fast Zer0 could do it. A hologram replaced it. So Matt took a bullet that Maya had shot and threw it at the hologram, deactivating it and revealing Zer0's location. The sniper-loving assassin was to his left.

Matt kicked him away, throwing him against a wall.

Brick came in, visibly annoyed after being hit in the face with a thick metal turret. He was ready to throw several punches. Matt dodged the first two, and baited him to throw more force on the last. As the Berserker did so, he dodged it, and carefully placed his foot by his charging leg, resulting in him toppling over and landing on his face.

Salvador got back up, and began firing once again, so Matt taunted him to charge at him. He slowly began moving towards Maya, whose bullets he had to dodge every so often. Sal ran towards him, his small size aiding in his fast speed. Once the man caught up with him, Matt moved past him and tripped him up, and then threw him at Maya, whose Phaselock had dropped.

As time began to speed up to normal, he could observe that all six of the Vault Hunters were on the ground, defeated.

 _Did I really just do that?_ He questioned himself, putting away his Maggie _I wonder how Aurora's going to react to this._

'Wow,' Lilith admired. She couldn't think what else she could really say. 'I have never seen something like this before.'

'That's why they call me the Anomaly,' Matt replied, dropping to the ground in a moment of weakness. Lilith ran over to him.

'You alright, killer?' She asked caringly. Matt wiped his nose, showing blood from it like usual when he overused his abilities.

'Ah,' he groaned, clutching his forehead. 'Can't overuse my powers.'

'Right. Everyone? You gonna get up?'

'I guess,' Maya replied, struggling to get up. Matt went over to help her up. 'Thanks.'

'Hey!' Mordecai called to her, getting up and injecting hypos into his ribs. 'Why'd you Phaselock me, amiga?'

'I was aiming for Matt,' she replied.

'Then why'd it get me?' He demanded.

'Actually,' he piped up. 'That was me. I redirected it.'

'How did you do that?' Lilith and Maya enquired to him in unison.

'I don't know, it was just instinct,' he confessed.

'That's some instinct you got there kid,' Axton said, getting up from the ground. 'I'm surprised I'm not already dead.'

'That's because I've never tried to kill you, Axton,' Matt countered. For a moment, he saw a feeling of guilty defeat in his disposition, but it reverted back to a normal look.

'A powerful show / Of abilities he has / I am most impressed.' Zer0 seemed quite pleased with the demonstration of power they just received.

'What's going on?' Aurora asked, walking over to Lilith, and observing the scene. 'Di-Did Matty just…fight _all_ of you? And _win?_ ''

'This badass just beat us all down!' Brick exclaimed. 'He hit me in the face with Axton's turret!' He could not last any longer without erupting into raucous laughter.

'Now this thing's a little battered up,' Axton muttered, observing his turret pad, which now had been indented on a few sides.

'That actually reminds me: Aurora, you have your training just like Matt did,' Lilith announced, turning to her.

'I don't have to fight all of you too, right?' Aurora seemed slightly worried.

'Just me,' she told her. 'We measure how long you can last with me.'

'A Siren?' She worried. 'That's not too promising.'

'You'll be fine, 'Ora,' Matt reassured.

'Only one initiate has beaten me in hand-to-hand combat,' Lilith added unhelpfully. He briefly shot a look of annoyance at her.

'Who?' Aurora badgered.

'Guess.' Lilith glanced at Matt, who was awkwardly standing with his arms folded.

'That was you?' Aurora emphasised pointedly. 'You beat the most powerful Siren in the universe? The Siren whose bounty is known across the entire universe for mass murder and being, you know, able to liquefy people?'

'Hey! It wasn't easy!' Matt replied. 'And besides, we weren't trying to kill each other, so she was only really Phasewalking and not Phaseblasting as well.'

'That is true,' Lilith disclosed. 'Come on.' She directed her to follow her to the plaza where Matt just fought. He walked back up the steps and nodded to her to go down.

'The best I got is an Eridium-shard revolver. It isn't exactly on Matty's level.'

'Can you not call him Matty every five seconds?' Axton agitatedly demanded, walking up the plaza with the rest of his Vault Hunter friends. 'It's so goddamn annoying.'

'Right,' she permitted confoundedly, taken aback. 'Sorry.'

'Whatever,' Axton disinterestedly supplemented. Maya did not seem too happy with his behaviour.

'Calm down, Axton, it's just a nickname,' she argued. 'Besides, it's cute.' Aurora went red for a few seconds, but fought it off.

'You ready?' Lilith asked her.

'I guess…' Aurora supposed. She took out her Eridium revolver, and pulled out its chamber to check that the gun was fully loaded. When she recognised it was, she shook her gun to the side to close it again.

Just as the fight was about to begin, someone tapped Matt on the shoulder. He turned to his side to see Gaige standing there gawkily, somewhat trying to ask something she was too nervous to request outright. She was twiddling with her fingers.

''Sup, Gaige? Something you want?' He catechised friendlily.

'I was just hoping you could help me with something,' Gaige apprehensively requested.

'Something with Deathtrap?'

'No. Something else.' Matt glanced back at Aurora, who had now begun fighting Lilith. She running around, aimlessly firing whenever Lilith entered her Phasewalk. The purple and gold glowing bullets were firing every which way except at Matt. Every so often, the bullets would ricochet of the walls and almost hit Lilith, but would ultimately miss.

'Ok.'

Matt was about to call out that he had to go, but Aurora seemed to be quite occupied with her battle, so he instead just nodded at her and walked away with Gaige, although Aurora didn't notice the nod. She instead just looked up to see him walking away with Gaige. The Revolverslinger could feel she was beginning to boil with anger, as though bubbles were popping in synchronisation with her heated outrage.

Gaige led him towards Crimson Raiders HQ, holding his hand with her metal one. He was slightly scared that she might accidently crush his fingers under the pressure of her metal arm without realising it. Matt wasn't too certain just how potent the synthetic nerves were in her arm, but wasn't about to ask her, for worry that it may seem too forward.

Not to mention that Matt didn't suppose that Aurora would be too happy with him leaving to go off to do something with Gaige. Hopefully whatever she needed him for, it was important.

'Gaige, can you just tell me what this is about?' He purposefully emphasised his restlessness, as she led him up the stairs.

'In a second!' She persisted. Gaige dragged him to the scanner room, where it was oddly silent and absent of Vault Hunters. She pointed at the scanner.

'I don't get it,' Matt honestly articulated.

'I've been looking for a better shield for Sanctuary,' she revealed.

'Since when?'

'A while, but I'm close,' she replied.

'Then what do you need my help for?' Matt asked perplexedly.

'Your Vault Instinct data,' Gaige elucidated. 'I need to copy it into the scanner. You see, the location's encrypted: top secret. If I can cross-reference my data with _your_ data, I might be able identify outliers and determine the location of a superior capacitor and generator. Your data software should help to decrypt it.'

'You better be right on that,' Matt harmlessly warned. He took out his ECHOear, which possessed the Vault Instinct software, and held it out for her. 'These things are one in a million.'

'I'll be careful,' she warranted, carefully plucking the earpiece out of his hand. Matt gave a cord to connect them with. As soon as she connected the cord to the ECHOear, Gaige placed the earpiece on top of the lining of the scanner, before plugging the other end of the cord into a port on the bottom side of the machine.

A hologram appeared notifying the users that it was downloading the data, complete with a loading bar below it. The bar quickly completed, filling up in seconds. A map popped up on screen, showing the algorithm that the Vault Instincts software was using to find the location of the Vault. Gaige began typing, adding boxes of text on the screen that were lining across with text that Gaige was writing.

'A-hah!' She triumphantly called out. 'The location is…'

* * *

 ** _What_** ** _a cliff-hanger…_**

 **Yeah, it might seem a bit… insipid to end on a cliff-hanger like that, but I had to end the chapter** ** _sometime_** **so it wouldn't get too long. I guess I'll have to post the next chapter especially quickly to make up for it, haha.**

 **Note: I read this back and realised I _totally_ messed up Zer0's haikus at first, so I had to go back and fix them in this chapter, so it took slightly longer to edit this than usual. I don't know if I got the syllables right for the other chapters, so I'm probably gonna go back and check.**

 **Extra note: I've actually done a full page in my notebook about the Vault, how it works, the Vault Monster inside, the Eridian technology inside, etc. That way, when I get around to filling you in on how it works, I can be detailed. I'd like to think how it works is quite different to the other Vaults (Warrior, Destroyer, Sentinel and Traveller) so…**

 **Stay tuned!**


	8. Green-Eyed

**Hot off the heels of the last chapter, here we are again! Matt and friends will be planning their mission to get upgraded shield parts.**

 **I'm afraid this chapter** ** _won't_** **be named after a character skill, since I couldn't come up with a suitable name. However, I'm certain all the other ones** ** _will_** **be named accordingly and fit with the concepts and beliefs / what occurs in the chapter. I still tried to make it more figurative. I guess if someone feels like there could be a better name for this chapter, then it'd be nice to know.**

 **And now…**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight: Green-Eyed**

* * *

Gaige frowned.

'…The Friendship Gulag? What?'

'That's in the Dust isn't it?'

'I know that, but…the Gulag doesn't _have_ a shield,' she explained. 'So why would they be storing one?'

'Because they're planning to,' he deduced. 'We should scout the area. I can't imagine that there _wouldn't_ be a least a million Hyperion personnel guarding it.'

'When should we raid it?'

'I think that's a job for everyone. Go talk to Lilith about this, so that we can raid it after we've finished scouting it.' Gaige nodded, and was about to walk away to find her, but a voice stopped her.

'Talk to me about what?' It was Lilith. 'What are you planning?' Gaige wasted no time explaining what she had been doing up to her entrance. She nodded.

'So we need to check out the area before we can all raid it,' Gaige concluded.

'I see,' she nodded. 'Good thinking, Gaige.'

'Actually, that was Matt's idea.'

'Figures.' Matt and Gaige sniggered together. He began typing into the scanner, updating the hologram to show a 3D blueprint design of the Friendship Gulag.

'Take a look at this,' he directed, pointing at the hologram. He expanded the parameters of the scan, revealing further tunnels and chasms underneath the Gulag. 'There's an entire underground network beneath the surface. Stored in there is stuff Hyperion intends to keep – like a powerful shield generator and capacitor, perhaps?'

'It does seem likely that that's where it'll be,' Lilith agreed.

'Only problem is, I have no idea how to access it.'

'What about your C-Digistructor device?' She reminded.

'Yeah, we might be able to disguise as one of them, but I don't where the access point is,' he reasoned. 'Besides, we don't know who has high enough clearance.'

'What's a C-Digistructor?' Gaige piped up.

'It allows you to take the form of anything humanoid as long as you scan them in,' he clarified. 'Lilith and I used them to get into the Armoury.' Matt pulled out the two devices from his pocket, glad that Lilith had returned the second one shortly before his second bout of training.

'Can't we just hack it?' The Mechromancer proposed.

'The software isn't old like the Armoury, it's top of the line,' he deterred. 'You might get skin-deep, but not past the point of seriously protective software. As good of a hacker as you are, I don't think even _you'd_ be able to get past it.' Gaige could barely contain herself from smiling.

 _He really thinks I am a good hacker,_ she thought excitedly. _Thanks, Matt._

'Gaige? Are you paying attention, killer?' She clicked her fingers in front of her face, a magician breaking her from her hypnotic trance.

'Whuh? O-Oh…y-yeah,' she stammered. 'I'm fine.'

'Anyway, it's turning late afternoon, so we better go,' he observed. 'Come on, Gaige, get your equipment together.'

'Ok, Matt,' she nodded, and unplugged the ECHOear and restored it to him.

'I'll be waiting by the fast travel,' he informed her, before strolling away towards the travel machine. Gaige looked on for a few seconds, and then opened the bank to take out some of her personal weapons and equipment.

'You just can't wait to go on _personal_ mission with him, can you?' Lilith figured out.

'Shut up, Lilith,' she bitterly ignored.

'Or is that you want to get him away from that Aurora girl?' She figured out. Gaige falsely sniggered.

'No!' She wearily denied.

'Sure, kid,' she further pestered. 'Keep telling yourself that.'

'Whatever,' she continued to dig through the bank for her equipment, stashing it in her ECHO whenever she found something of use.

* * *

Matt stood by the fast travel, leaning on the wall just beside it. He did not want to wait for Gaige for too long, because he knew that this whole "new shield for Sanctuary" thing was important. And he didn't want to have a potential argument with Aurora. Hopefully she wasn't going to be too sensitive.

Not that she usually was. Aurora tended to be very steely and tough with most, except, when she was around him, she was different. Whereas Matt was always just…Matt. No matter who he was with, he maintained the same personality and feelings. He never hid who he hated and who he desired to drop off the deep end, not once changing how he felt about something. Unless he found evidence that suggested his perception was wrong about something. Gemini was the obvious example there.

Matt had his dark moments, but it's not like he hid that. It was always a part of him, since his experiences with Gemini and Hyperion. What happened he couldn't forget or avoid; the trauma was there and remembered.

'Oh, there you are.' Matt lost his train of thought and looked to his left. Aurora was standing imposingly by the door.

'Hey 'Ora.'

'Why'd you leave in the middle of my training?' She jumped into asking. 'With Gaige of all people?'

'She needed my help with something.'

'Oh, she _always_ needs you for something,' Aurora grumbled. 'How can you want to spend more time with her than _me?'_

'That's not the point, Aurora,' Matt replied. She was slightly taken aback by how he chose _not_ to say her nickname. 'It was _my_ Vault Instincts software data that she needed.'

'Why not mine, huh?' Aurora questioned, tapping her ECHOear. 'You're being blind, Matty. She wants you _specifically_ with her.'

'If you're implying what I think you're implying then –' Matt began.

'What? That she likes you?' She angrily interrupted. 'And what are you doing now?' Matt sighed, reluctant to answer the question.

'I'm…going on a mission…with Gaige,' he admitted. Aurora rolled her eyes. 'It's not like that! We're scouting an area that we're _all_ going to raid later.'

'Where?' She asked, ears perking up in curiosity.

'Friendship Gulag. There's supposed to be a suitable shield generator and capacitor there, which can replace the current inferior counterparts used to protect Sanctuary.'

'No, I'm not letting you go out with _her_ alone,' she resolved. Matt looked blankly at her. 'I'm going with you.' He sighed vociferously, emphasising his frustration.

'No, you're not,' he commanded. 'You're letting your emotions cloud your judgement. Aurora, you're not one for stealth. You have an itch to kill. We… _I_ can't risk this mission going south.'

'You don't have a _choice,_ Matt,' she argued, too angry to use the nickname. 'I don't want you…fraternising.'

'Hold on…' he examined the look in her eyes. 'Are you…jealous?' Aurora blushed for roughly a millisecond.

'N-No…' she unconvincingly pleaded.

'Look who's lying now,' Matt remarked.

'Ok, maybe I _am,_ ' she confessed. 'But it's not as if that's unexpected! It's not surprising that someone's _best friend_ would want to spend some time alone with them after not having _seen_ them for a while! Every time I have held a conversation with you, there's been someone else in the room, _usually_ that… _Gaige_ girl, so this time I'm not letting you hold a conversation with _her_ when I'm not there.'

'Come on, Aurora,' Matt sighed. 'You're being childish.'

'I'm not letting you go until I do,' she declared, covering the fast travel machine. Matt thought it over for a few seconds.

'Alright, fine,' Matt gave in. 'You can come. Just don't mess this up, OK? And keep your emotions in check.'

'You got it, Matty.' Aurora smiled cheekily. He rolled his eyes.

'OK, Matt, I've got everything,' Gaige's voice could be heard from around the corner. She walked into the central building, smiling at him. Aurora rolled her eyes. Gaige looked at her in the most positive way she could.

'Oh… _hey Aurora,'_ she awkwardly greeted. 'Come to see us off?'

'I'm going with you,' Aurora replied. 'And that's final.'

'Why?' Gaige asked. 'We don't _need_ an extra person.' Aurora didn't really care what her excuse was.

'As if I am going to let _you two_ go alone,' she ridiculed. Gaige frowned.

'What do you mean by that?' Aurora did not elucidate, and instead just scoffed loudly.

'Whatever, Gaige.'

'Matt, can I talk to you for a second?' Gaige requested, beckoning him to follow her outside. He nodded, and they walked carefully out of earshot of Aurora.

* * *

'Look, I know 'Ora can be –' Matt began. Gaige was starting to get really irritated with the nickname.

'Why is she here?' Gaige interjected. 'We don't need her for this mission, OK? So why's she getting in the way?'

'She's quite…' Matt searched for the correct word. 'Protective.'

'Why would she need to protect you from me?' She interrogated.

'She wants to spend more time with me,' Matt admitted, sighing in his hand.

'Why? Because she likes you?'

'Because she's my _best friend_ , Gaige.' Gaige swallowed her previous words, hating their distastefulness.

'Matt, I just wanted for us to be a team, ya know?' She convinced.

'And we are. Just…don't mind Aurora; pretend she's not there if you want.'

'I'm sorry Matt.'

'It's fine, Gaige. It's all fine.' He pulled her into a hug, which she accepted. She enjoyed the comfort of her head against his chest. After a few seconds, he let go.

'OK, let's go, then,' Gaige prompted. They returned to Aurora, who was still eyeing her with sharp precision. Matt approached the access interface, pressing the touchpad a few times. He adjusted the location they intended to travel to.

 _Right…The Dust,_ he thought. _Gotta set properly…great!_ He pressed the button, and within moments, they were deconstructed and reconstructed atom by atom. Gaige and Aurora stood close by him as they materialised in Ellie's garage situated in the Dust.

'OK, the Gulag isn't far from here; we just need to get a vehicle and–'

'Howdy there!' Matt turned to his right to see a short, plump woman wearing a mechanic's suspenders. Ellie looked at them welcomingly.

'Hi, Ellie,' he replied. 'We're just…passing through _.'_

'You know her?' Gaige requested for confirmation, which he nodded to.

'You meet a lot of people when you travel around Pandora.'

' _That's_ what you've been doing for past few months?' Aurora probed.

'I've been hunting a Vault, that's what,' Matt argued sharply, before stepping away from them and into Ellie's garage. Aurora's expression dropped into remorse. He was slowly getting aggravated with Aurora's sudden bad temper following her vexation with Gaige. From his point of view, they were both getting the wrong idea about the other, and getting annoyed for no justified reason.

'You gonna get a Bandit vehicle, then?' The Mechromancer inferred.

'Since it has enough seats, yes. I'm driving.' Matt pressed a few buttons, and the car immediately digistructed on the panel where the digistructors were built into.

'I call shotgun!' Gaige excitedly declared. Aurora frowned.

'No, _I_ am,' she corrected.

'No way, I said it first!' She argued.

'As if I'm letting you sit next to him…' Aurora muttered in Gaige's ear, inaudible enough so that Matt would not hear. Gaige's face contorted in outrage.

'But –'

'Oh, for fuck's sake!' Matt interrupted. 'Does it _really_ matter?' He exhaled stridently. 'Er…Gaige, you called it so, you can.'

'Nice!' She celebrated, climbing into the passenger's seat. Matt ascended into the driver's seat, and nodded to Aurora to step into the gunner seat. She reluctantly got into the seat which manned the sawblade thrower, maintaining a tight grip on the controller for its movements.

Once they were all in place, the Anomaly began moving the vehicle out of Ellie's garage. Ellie waved goodbye, wishing luck on whatever assignment they had been tasked with.

* * *

Matt drove along the sandy plains of the desert-bound Dust, leaving tracks that would only be erased by the wind. He carefully avoided any Bandit Technicals that may attack them; hopefully, his Bandit vehicle would deter them if they did not inspect the driver for too long. Although avoiding Spiderants would be much more difficult.

For a split-second, he glanced at Gaige, catching her eye. She smiled warmly at him, and Matt could only beam back at her. Aurora frowned in jealousy. If she weren't sitting in the seat outside of his vision, she might've been able to talk further with him without Gaige interrupting. Perhaps.

'Luckily it isn't too far!' Gaige yelled over the noise of the engine.

'Exactly!' Matt responded, bellowing at a similar volume. 'If all goes well, we should be in and out before that church bell can toll for the eighth time!'

'Hopefully!' Aurora chimed in. 'As long as we follow your lead!'

'Gaige knows this place better than us!' Matt apprised her. 'It's probably better to follow hers than mine!' Aurora growled silently under her breath at her failed obvious attempt at positive attention from him.

Matt drove towards the Catch-A-Ride machine just beside the small hill up to the Friendship Gulag, and parked there neatly. He then signalled for everyone to get out of the Technical, if they were not aware already that they had arrived at their destination.

'And we're here!' He announced, clambering out of the vehicle and resting his shoe-clad feet on the hot sand. Surprisingly, they had not drawn the attention of any Spiderants in the immediate vicinity.

'How are we going to go about this?' Gaige asked. 'We can't exactly just… _walk in._ '

'We can actually,' Matt said, taking out two C-Digistructors and threw one to her. She caught it and looked at him in a quite a puzzled way. Matt went over her, and pointed at a button. 'If you press that button, and then flick that switch, you can take on the appearance of the form latest used.'

'Thanks, Matt,' she complimented, playfully pushing him with her shoulder, and activating it. Aurora clenched her fists enviously, taking out one of _her_ C-Digistructors and wirelessly downloading the data from Matt's.

'Thank you for the download, _Matty,_ ' Aurora loudly and over-exaggeratingly thanked him, hugging his shoulder and slightly pushing Gaige away.

'Yeah, whatever,' Matt modestly accepted. He turned his attention back to Gaige. 'You can go invisible by pressing the Invisibility Capacitor on your waist.' Gaige nodded in understanding, and pressed it to test, briefly turning invisible. 'And press the button on the bottom of the C-Digistructor to turn off the voice modulator.'

'I see,' Gaige comprehended, her voice still changed. She pressed the button to turn of the voice mod. 'That's better.'

'Yeah, I prefer your voice to a Deceptor's,' Matt praised. Gaige blushed behind her helmet and disguise.

'Thanks,' she accredited. 'Why can't we just sneak in and steal the shield equipment?'

'Because the security is off the scale,' Matt explicated. 'There's no way we're just going to be able to smuggle it out without anyone noticing. Given that Gemini and Hyperion are working together, they've probably accounted for C-Digistructors and Deceptors. If we try to walk into the bunker area, our invisibility would likely be deactivated, as would our C-Digistructors. We can't risk that.'

'So instead, we're scouting the area,' Aurora added, assuming the form of a Deceptor. 'I doubt they'd have measures for people who aren't stealing.' She then turned off the modulator to return her voice to normal. Matt switched on his C-Digistructor and also assumed the form of a Deceptor. Once he calibrated it, Matt addressed them.

'Remember: only Deceptors can see other Deceptors while invisible,' he presaged them. 'So once we go invis, we'll be able to keep track of each other. Stealth, now!' They all activated their Capacitors and turned invisible, although still able to see each other through their Deceptor helmet visor. Matt imagined that this was what it might've been like to use Zer0's helmet.

They walked up to the Hyperion sliding door, staring at it and wondering how they were going to open it. Gaige stepped forward, claiming she had figured this out already when prepping for this mission. Aurora smirked at her sheepishly, behind Matt's back. Gaige ignored her, and uncloaked, and manipulating the settings on the C-Digistructor so that her metal arm was exposed. She began pressing buttons on it until the door slid open. Gaige cloaked up again.

'Nice work Gaige!' Matt congratulating.

'I thank you very much,' she re-joined, bowing to him.

'Keep on with the flirting, why don't ya…?' Aurora muttered to herself.

'Let's go,' Matt directed. They walked into the Gulag, where there was an Ammo Dump machine and a Dr Zed portable clinic machine to their left.

They were sure to be aware of their surroundings as the group walked through the open area of the Gulag. The pristine white walls of the Hyperion 'buildings' and the white tiled ground easily caught the reflection of the Sun, despite the fact that it was going down and progressing into darkened evening.

Creeping around, they could see multiple Hyperion Loaders and Infiltrators patrolling the area, keeping some of their prisoners captured. Matt shook upon seeing a few Hyperion soldiers, most of which wielding standard Hyperion pistols and SMGs, blinking at flashes of those two bullets firing towards his beloved.

'Will the Hyperion Infiltrators be able to see us?' Gaige asked him quietly. Matt didn't reply, until she nudged his shoulder. 'Matt?'

'Er, sorry, no,' he finally resolved. 'They won't, the technology's different.'

'Are you OK?' Aurora counselled, placing her hand on her shoulder. 'The PTSD not too bad?'

'It's pretty much cleared up at this point,' he whispered back. 'C'mon, we need to find this entrance.' Matt sneaked away ahead of them, avoiding carefully the Hyperion personnel and staying out of their line of movement. If he so much as briskly touched them on shoulders, he would more than likely alert them to their presence. And if they knew of their presence, they'd figure out that they were going to attack it later, and thus prepare.

He brought up the 3D blueprint of the Gulag on his ECHO HUD. There did not seem to be a general access point from any location, but at the very least, he could detect that the chasms seemed to originate near the set of office-based buildings that lead to the POW cells. Matt signalled for his two teammates to follow his lead. Gaige went to go walk beside him, but Aurora lightly shoved her out of the way to get a head start on standing closely by Matt. They pointed their guns around them, just in case they would have to leave the Gulag in a firefight.

Gaige walked up beside Aurora, with an agitated look on her face, which she tried to hide from Matt whenever he glanced at her.

'What's your problem, Aurora?' She whispered to her so quietly Matt would not hear.

'You barely _know_ Matt,' she uttered back. 'Stop trying to get all touchy feely with him.' Gaige went red, or at least would have if her disguise was inactive.

'I'm n-not…' she attempted to counter.

'Sure,' Aurora sardonically retorted. Gaige stood frozen for a few seconds, before breaking back into slow walk behind Aurora and Matt, attempting to avoid the Revolverslinger.

 _I don't feel that way about Matt, right?_ She uncertainly doubted. _I don't know._

'It must be somewhere around here,' Aurora cited out loud.

'Problem is, there isn't much clue in the schematics,' he reasoned.

Gaige ran up beside them, about to pipe up about where she assumed where the access pathway for the underground network might be, but Aurora pushed her away. Matt noticed this almost immediately, alarmed to see her falling back and about to fall into a Hyperion soldier. He slowed down time and ran beside her, catching her in his arms before she could hit the Hyperion agent. The soldier harmlessly walked away from them.

'You alright?' Matt asked her caringly.

'Fine, thanks to you.' She smiled at him adorably, as he helped her to her feet. Once she had re-established her balance, Matt's expression turned to anger as he turned to Aurora.

'What the hell do you think you're playing at?' He demanded, still managing to keep his voice quiet enough so the Hyperion Loaders would not detect the soundwaves and decrypt it. 'If you can't sort out your differences, then this mission is going down the drain. You can kiss any chance of protection from Sanctuary if you're just going to pester one of the nice people who're kind enough to shelter you! There is no point in acting as vain and overzealous as you are right now.'

'Sorry,' Aurora apologised, showing evident remorse on her face. Maybe she was just proving to be more of liability and plain ungrateful, the possibility racked her brains for any more evidence.

'It's not me you should be acting contrite for,' Matt scoffed, glancing back at Gaige. Aurora turned to her, looking almost embarrassed to be engaging in apology requesting.

'Sorry, Gaige,' she ultimately repeated to her.

'Thank you,' the Mechromancer responded. Once they both turned away and resumed their search, Gaige could not contain her smile any longer at how Matt had defended her.

 _He really thinks I'm nice too…_ she joked quite happily to herself. She shook her head avidly, as if trying to disperse some kind of pain. _Get your head in the game, Gaige! You can't afford to get distracted!_

'I was gonna say, if we want to find where the bunker is, we'll need to do a manual scan,' she proposed.

'But they might pick that up,' Matt told her. 'And then they'll know that we're here.'

'Not if we deactivate their technology momentarily,' she reasoned, with a smile. 'If we do it for short enough, they'll just assume it's a glitch.' She might've be able to just deactivate some lights or something. Maybe short-circuit something here and there.

'You think that'll work?' Aurora asked. They both looked at her like she had just said the most useless words possible for the situation. 'Well, you know, Hyperion doesn't get fooled easily.'

'Sure they don't,' Gaige snorted, pressing buttons on her gauntlet. Matt nodded to her to activate it. 'Glitching their systems… _now.'_

The lights began flashing all around the Friendship Gulag, before ultimately switching off. The place was blanketed in quickly strengthening darkness, as the evening blackness slowly began to take its course, and the Pandoran Sun began setting. Hyperion personnel looked around perplexedly, attempting to figure out what was going on.

Gaige was not deterred by the panic, and instead immediately ran a manual scan on the entirety of the Friendship Gulag. She could almost not believe that she had not considered this option already. Although, Gaige was more focussed on just getting this done, perhaps impressing Matt along the way too.

'Gaige! How close are you to finishing? They're going to start to suspect that someone's messing with them!' Matt announced to her.

'Yeah, we can't keep this ruse up for long!' Aurora chimed in.

'I'm almost done!' Gaige declared. 'Just a couple more seconds!' She was proven to be correct, as her scan finished, and she slid up a plate on the side of a building, revealing a keypad. Gaige entered the numbers she'd just hacked to find out.

The Gulag was still glitching out, allowing her to quickly unlock the door to the top secret bunker and then lock it up again. When she opened it, a large section of the corridor – where buildings connected through overhead 2:4 panels – lifted up and slid away. Further smaller panels on the floor also slid away to sides to give more leg room. They revealed a set of stairs leading down to an automatic double door.

With only few seconds before the sliding door would fully close again, Matt slowed down time, took out a metallic red USB-like device, and jammed it into the bottom of the keypad entry panel just beside the door. Bolting it for the exit, Matt only barely managed to make it to the stop of the stairs before the floor closed up again.

'Restoring control…now,' Gaige told them. The lights returned to normal, and all Hyperion technology stopped glitching and reverted to normal use. It did not seem that they had detected a manual schematic scan on their property. Too bad that was the only thing she could do.

'What was that?' Asked a random Hyperion soldier.

'Probably just a glitch in the system,' another soldier justified.

'Looks like it worked,' Matt inferred, pleased. 'We should get back to Sanctuary, and then we can all regroup, and take the Gulag.'

'Sounds great,' Aurora replied. 'It'll be easier with all of us here. I think –'

'Shit!' Gaige cursed, interrupting her. Both Matt and Aurora stared at her awkwardly. 'My C-Digi-thing keeps glitching!' She briefly went visible, for a microsecond, with her disguise stripped, before returning to normal. Matt went over to her to examine the device.

'Oh no…it's almost completely out of charge!'

'You didn't think to charge it since the last time you used it?' Aurora criticised. He shot an angry look at her which immediately caused hers to disappear. '…Sorry.'

'If it's about to run out, then we should go now!' Gaige worriedly broadcasted, although still attempted to remain as quiet as possible.

'But if yours is then…' Matt's eyes darted down, to see that his too was draining. He was starting to become visible. 'Run!'

Immediately Gaige and Matt broke into a sprint for the exit, fully aware that their C-Digistructors could fail at any moment. Every so often, they would become visible and invisible again, although fortunately this was too fast for anyone to notice. Aurora shrugged her shoulders, and ran after them.

Gaige kept her eye on the exit, ignoring her rapidly increasing tiredness despite the adrenaline she was using. Matt seemed very focussed to get away, and didn't have too much time to worry about how he could go visible at any instant. So when he started to go visible for slightly longer periods, it was Gaige who noticed, and not himself. She pulled him forward, so that no Loaders would attempt to scan him if they registered unauthorised movement in the Gulag.

They had almost made it to the door, with Aurora tailing close behind. Gaige hoped that her C-Digistructor would not completely run out of juice before they made it.

And they were in enough luck that it did not. Matt and his compatriots made it to the exit, where he avidly pressed the button to open the door again. It slid open, the speed feeling like hours due to their rush to get out and additional adrenaline. Once it did finally open, Matt and Gaige sprinted out immediately, and Aurora casually walked out, delaying the door from sliding shut again. She uncloaked and turned off her C-Digistructor.

The Anomaly and the Mechromancer paused to catch their breath. They were panting wildly, like a dog. He put a hand on Gaige's shoulder, patting it as a means of congratulation for the success she just achieved, but could not put it into words due to his requirement to recapture and retain his breath. As if on cue, their C-Digistructors ran out of charge, and their disguise evaporated.

'Damn that was close,' Matt noted.

'You're damn right,' Gaige panted. She hugged him briefly for a few seconds, abruptly stopping when she saw Aurora eyeing her angrily.

'Come on both of you!' Aurora called, leaning on the vehicle.

'Right. Yes. We should get back to Sanctuary,' Gaige awkwardly agreed. She gauchely walked towards the Bandit Technical. Matt frowned at her, not sure as to why she was acting so strangely.

* * *

 **Maybe it's a little obvious, but the entire chapter revolves around jealousy. Hence the name, too.**

 **Yeah, I'm a pretty bad romance writer. Mainly because I don't like to focus on romance too much. I feel like if you pay too much attention to it, it can interrupt the flow of the story and distract away from the true plot. However, this chapter is long as it is, so maybe I'm subconsciously slowing the flow of it even without including the romantic aspect. If that's true, then I might have to work on that.**

 **But yeah, Aurora is jealous of Gaige for essentially "stealing" the attention of her best friend. So she wants to impress him to prove that she deserves just as much – if not** ** _more_** – **attention than Gaige. Not to mention she's grown quite close to him over those years they knew each other.**

 **I guess you'll see what lengths she'll go to achieve that, regardless of if it gets in the way of the mission...**


	9. Many Must Fall

**I have returned! Not that matters all that much, but, eh, whatever. So the story continues, as now the gang will be getting a better shield for Sanctuary. (Remember how Lilith mentions that in-game with Mordecai and Brick after you beat the game and return to Sanctuary…?)**

 **Henceforth…**

* * *

 **Chapter Nine: Many Must Fall**

* * *

Lilith examined the 3D schematics, as Matt pointed at the beginnings of the tunnels. All the Vault Hunters had now collected around the scanner on the top floor of Crimson Raider HQ.

'The entrance is on a hidden panel on the wall just _there,'_ he pointed. 'And I imagine the shield upgrades are somewhere in this storage area.' The Anomaly gestured around the general area of a fairly large square room.

'Didn't it show up on your scan, Gaige?' Lilith asked. She shook her head.

'Too encrypted. I could only detect that it was indeed in the bunker, given by the energy signature given off, but not the exact location.'

'So you want us to go attack it?' Maya construed.

'It's our only play,' Aurora admitted. 'Trying to sneak in is too risky. They'll know that someone's trying to get in because the door is automatic.'

'How can you even be sure that there even _are_ suitable shield upgrades in it?' Axton questioned.

'My technology doesn't lie!' Gaige argued playfully.

'No, but it malfunctions,' he fired back. Her eyes widened and she lost her callous attitude. 'That's right. I heard about the whole Deathtrap incident. You should be careful with your shit.'

'Screw you, asshole!' She degraded. Gaige was about to push him, but Zer0 put his hand between the two.

'You must not argue / As there is no point in it / So work together.'

'He's right, slabs,' Brick concurred. 'We're all friends here.'

'Yeah, we can't do this mission if you two are arguing all the time,' Matt stated, the similarity in his words from before causing Aurora to look downwards for a second remorsefully. 'This is important enough for you to set your problems aside.'

'Whatever…'

'That goes for you and Matt, Axton,' Maya reminded him. 'We can't be having you holding this stupid grudge on Matt while we're doing this.' Axton sighed stressfully. 'For the good of the team?'

'For the good of the team,' he muttered.

'Anyway,' Aurora continued. 'Once we take down the Gulag, and get the capacitor and generator, we can control the location. It should give us more Hyperion data, so we can wipe them off the face of Pandora. Also, it'll allow the Raiders more room to train.'

'Sounds like a plan, amiga,' Mordecai acceded. She smiled.

'It is gonna be a lot of fun!' Brick commented happily.

'Easy,' Lilith ordered. 'You haven't explained how we're going to get past the second door, Matt.'

'Well, it's a good thing I have a way of getting past it then,' he revealed. Everyone frowned.

'What do you mean?' Maya asked. Matt pulled out a rectangular, crimson device.

'Another Gemini device, a Bypass,' he told them. 'It's part of a set. This is a sender, and the other is the receiver. You send a code with this, and the receiver emits it into any device it is connected to. Back when Gaige, Aurora and I were at the Gulag, I plugged it into the bottom of the access interface panel by the door.'

'And _why_ have you only being using this now?' Lilith inquired.

'I couldn't get it working until recently,' he enlightened them. 'Fixed it shortly before our collective sparing match. You know, when I went to my workshop?' The Siren nodded in recollection.

'Great,' Gaige commended. 'Now we have a way to get to get past the door.'

'Right then,' Lilith addressed. 'Everyone make sure you've got your gear! I'll be briefing you all on your role on this mission tomorrow morning. Prep yourselves, and get some sleep.'

There was a unanimous nod about the room to that statement, whereupon everyone went their separate ways to prepare for the mission.

* * *

He woke up screaming once more, wishing to escape the nightmare he had been trapped in. He sat up.

Matt wished they would stop. His nightmares seemed to be fairly consistently awful. This time he was having dreams about his sister, even though she died a long time ago.

Aurora was in the other bedroom in his house, so waking up with a scream would almost certainly attract her attention. He didn't want wake her up, as he did not want to find out what it was like to wake the young woman up and ruin her rest.

Not that he had a choice.

'Matt?!' Called Aurora, too scared to use the nickname, running worriedly into the room. 'Are you OK?' She sat next to him.

'Sorry, bad dream,' he replied noncommittally. 'I woke you up, didn't I?'

'It's OK,' she consoled, putting an arm around him and resting her head on his shoulder. 'It isn't your fault.'

'I just want it to stop, you know?'

'It doesn't just go away, Matty. You have to move on as well.'

'Easier said than done.'

'I know, I know,' Aurora solaced. 'But I'm always here for you, OK?'

'Thanks, 'Ora.'

'That's what friends are for.' Aurora bent over and kissed him lightly on the forehead. 'Best friends forever?'

'Forever,' Matt validated, lying down back in his now clean bed. Aurora walked back to her room and laid down back in her own bed, staring up at the ceiling.

 _We aren't just friends,_ she thought gloomily.

* * *

Matt slammed his back against the wall by the entrance to the Gulag for cover. Gaige had already unlocked the first door, and the entire group of Vault Hunters were waiting for the go ahead from Lilith to storm through the proper entrance.

Mordecai was still visibly on the hill to their left, with his slag sniper rifle. He was aiming around to get a good observation on all the Hyperion personnel swarming the area. The sniper noted to the rest of them that there seemed to be more guarding the area than usual, to which Matt proposed that they were likely to be more on edge due to the supposed "glitch" that Gaige had incited earlier. The entrance of to the bunker was not too far away from where they were, but the panel wasn't altogether visible though.

Lilith seemed to holding them back, not quite ready to let them go in on the personnel. Matt looked at one of them and silently shook off visions of past trauma. He knew he was ready to take them on, and tear them into pieces, although not literally.

Maya and Zer0 seemed to be loading all of their guns still, but it appeared to him that they were mostly just stalling. This was important. Protecting Sanctuary seemed to be a number one priority, especially following Hyperion's much-publicised siege of New Haven.

Gaige was ready. He could tell by how she nodded at him once she had prepared her first weapon of choice next to him and primed Deathtrap. The Mechromancer seemed to be a little scared to use Deathtrap; even after extensive reworking of software and emergency protocols had been integrated. Matt told her that Deathtrap was something she needed, especially since not using it would be squandering her own talents.

'Lil? We gonna go anytime soon?' Matt asked. There was a brief frown from everyone except the two about use of the nickname so quickly.

'Wait for it…' Lilith instructed. She held them back with a gesture of her hand.

'Lilith, we can't really wait for too–' Maya attempted to tell her, but was interrupted by a loud explosion on the grounds nearby. Hyperion Loaders exploded everywhere, and various soldiers were sent flying. There were several more explosions following that. Matt looked up to see multiple slab Buzzards circling overhead with dispensable bombs attached to them.

'HAHAHAHAHA!' Brick laughed. 'MY SLABS ARE COMING IN!' He charged in with his fists held high.

'Go!' Lilith commanded, although it was fairly evident.

Instantly, Matt, Gaige and Aurora charged in ahead, shooting multiple soldiers and stripping the shields of Hyperion Infiltrators. Zer0, Maya, and Lilith followed suit, firing at the Infiltrators now that they were visible.

Zer0 turned invisible with his Deception, leaving his hologram in his place. A Battle Architect ran towards the hologram, assuming it was the original due to its apparent realistic nature. The hologram took out its sword, and the Architect fired. Once he the bullet hit, the hologram disappeared, and Zer0 reappeared and shot the Hyperion employee in the head. He slumped to the ground, dead.

'How peculiar,' the assassin revelled. 'Dead before he even knew / Where I had struck from.'

'Zer0 could you stop enjoying _one_ kill and help us over here?' Maya asked him, as Lilith and she were struggling to handle the excessive amount of Loaders in their vicinity. Zer0 nodded, and took out his corrosive Maliwan Snider and shot the critical weaknesses on several of them, leaving most of them without their gun or leg. Mordecai's slag was proving useful, as he would hit enemies quite often.

'Secure area under attack,' outlined an automatic female Hyperion voice. 'Deploying reinforcements.' Several moonshots were fired in response to that announcement, where numerous Loaders appeared out of the lunar supply crates. Multiple EXP Loaders ran towards Gaige, but Matt shot them and blew them up with his Hornet before they could reach her. She nodded in gratitude at him.

'It's robot fighting time!' Gaige exclaimed, before digistructing Deathtrap from her gauntlet. She then began to fire multiple shots with her Bekah assault rifle taking down 7 enemies in rapid succession, as Deathtrap aided in a few itself. 'M-M-M-Monster kill-kill-kill!'

'Careful, kid!' Axton called back to her. 'You're almost hitting me with some of those shots!'

'Accuracy's overrated!' She claimed, before cheering as Deathtrap cleaved an Engineer into tiny pieces. 'You are a mean MACHINE!'

'You know, I think' – Matt paused as he shot a few Architects in the head – 'I am starting' – he stopped again to kill a few armoured soldiers with his Chimera – 'to understand why' – he made his way towards her, dismantling a few ION and SGT Loaders with the shock element of his gun – 'you are often called' – Matt eventually found his way beside her, however not before stabbing an Engineer with his knife – 'hyperactive, Gaige.'

'You think so?' The Mechromancer yelled excitedly over the loud noise of bombs exploding and guns firing. 'What's wrong with that?'

'Nothing!' Matt bellowed back. 'If anything, it's adorable!' Gaige laughed, blushing slightly.

'Did I mention my Hyperion contract included a crime of excessive adorability?' She exclaimed.

'Seriously?' Matt could not quite believe that, but Gaige nodded back. 'Mine just claims I'm "property of Hyperion" so they "need" me.'

'OK, slightly more morbid, but never mind,' she joked.

'Can you two stop that?!' Aurora demanded from them. 'We need to get through this!' She shot a few more Loaders with her revolver.

'Right, sorry,' Gaige uneasily apologised.

Abruptly, a Hyperion Engineer jumped high into the air, and was about to land and crush Gaige. Matt slowed down time long enough for him to shoot the Engineer in the head mid-air with his Volcano, causing him to fall the ground beside Gaige. He moved her slightly so that she would be safer before the Engineer dropped dead on the ground.

'Headshot!' Matt celebrated happily. He looked around to see that all present Hyperion personnel had been defeated, and was hoping that they would not reappear.

'Volatile action taken. Deploying further reinforcements,' claimed the same sardonic Hyperion voice.

'Ah, shit,' Matt moaned, disgruntled more than worried. It wasn't as if Hyperion was a major threat at this point.

'More idiots to fight!' Brick cheered. Several seconds later, more moonshots were fired from Helios. Out of the crates were strictly EXP Loaders.

'They're planning on going kamikaze on our asses!' Maya realised. Then Matt got an idea.

'Wait!' He commanded. 'Don't shoot 'em! I have an idea!' They nodded towards him. He drew the attention of the five Loaders, enough for them to chase after him.

'I hope you know what you're doing, Matt!' Lilith told him.

'I got this!' Matt ensured. 'Over here, you little buggers…'

Hastily, he ran over to different doors and pressed the buttons to open them. Inside one of them was a containment room, where there sat a lunar supply beacon in the middle, active and sending out signals for reinforcements. The Anomaly led them towards it, setting off their detonators, and slowing time to slow enough that he could run past them and escape the radius of the explosions. Matt was still caught by the shockwave of the rapid succession of explosions and was pushed back, but got off the ground easily.

' _That_ was smart,' Mordecai reflected over the ECHO, appearing evidently impressed.

'Whatever,' Axton begrudgingly dismissed.

'Thanks,' Matt accepted, strolling back over to them. 'Now, we shouldn't get any more reinforcements.'

'Good thinking,' Aurora praised.

'Victory is near / We must not get distracted / While it's in our grasp,' Zer0 advised. Matt nodded and directed Gaige to a false panel hiding the keypad over the by the wall.

'This is the entrance to the underground network,' the Mechromancer remembered, pressing keys into it. 'Luckily, I recall the numbers for the panel.' She pressed in 8 digits and pressed the activation button to enter them. Gaige smiled when she succeeded and the panels slid up and moved to reveal the secure Hyperion door with the access interface once again. Good thing the glitch loaded in the digits for a split second.

'Here we are,' Matt said, turning to the others. 'This is it.' The others, aside from Mordecai, caught up with Matt and Gaige and admired the secure efforts Hyperion had taken. However, the humour could not be hidden in how Hyperion had still failed to hide it or keep it secure.

'I'll ECHO the Buzzards to keep watch,' Brick considered. Lilith nodded to that. 'I'll be right behind you.'

'OK, kid, let's hope your little device works,' Maya wished.

'It will,' he anticipated confidently. Matt walked down the steps towards the door and took out his parent device. He retested the connection, and once it proved functional, he pressed the button and the access panel glitched out, turning back for a second. It flashed again, displaying "ACCESS GRANTED" and slid open, revealing a more high-tech hallway.

'Let's go,' Gaige pushed along excitedly.

'Hold your horses, killer,' Lilith recommended. 'We don't know if there're traps in there or something.'

'It's fine!' Gaige counselled. 'If there were anything explosive or whatever, it would've come up on my scan.'

'OK,' she replied. 'But if we get attacked, it's your fault.'

'Matt, can you go first?' Gaige immediately asked.

'You're not seriously scared are you?' Matt questioned. She shrugged awkwardly. 'Fine.'

He walked through the hallway, with the other Vault Hunters following close behind. The hallway had a black design, with white rectangular lights on the ceiling, and on the underside of the rails on the floor. There didn't seem to be anyone around in the bunker, which didn't necessarily surprise him seen as though you quite clearly needed high clearance to access this secure area.

'The shield parts should be nearby, but the signal's getting scrambled,' Gaige complained.

'Keep looking for a storage area,' Matt ordered, looking around at all the signs on the door. They turned a corner, where two Hyperon Elites where patrolling the corridors. Immediately upon seeing the Vault Hunters, they held up their guns at the bunch,

'This is a restricted area!' One of them stated.

'Surrender now or face execution!' The other one enjoined firmly. The Vault Hunters looked at each other awkwardly.

'You're kidding, right?' Axton jested.

'Why the hell would I be –' one of them began, but was cut off by Axton swiftly dispatching both of them with a Jakobs Quad shotgun.

'That would be why,' he continued. Matt continued on through the hallways, keeping an eye out for anything that might imply some kind of storage.

'There!' Gaige pointed to a metal barrier with the small sign of "storage" attached. 'Just a guess.' She slid up the barrier to reveal multiple storage crates around the room. She opened many of them, not really finding anything in them. Her face fell upon seeing that nothing was inside them.

'Don't worry Gaige, I'm sure that there's more supply –' Matt began, but was interrupted by the blaring of alarms throughout the underground complex. Lights flashed red in alarm. Several Hyperion foot soldiers appeared in the room, swarming around the Vault Hunters as they stood helplessly in the room. Further soldiers appeared to disarm each and every one of them, even rigging up de-digistruction devices to prevent Zer0 from digistructing his sword.

'Surrender now!' The obvious leader of the group demanded. There was no reply from the group.

'Surrender now or die!' His subsidiary repeated. Axton stepped forward.

'Go to hell, dick.'

Matt noticed the beginnings of the trigger being pulled, and instantly held out his hand. Time slowed as his hand glowed, and the high-powered assault rifles were fired. He saw the fiery explosions from the muzzle of the guns. The Anomaly slowed time far beyond whatever he had done before. Several bullets began slowly firing out of the tip, alerting him that he was on extremely limited time.

Quickly as possible, he ran around each Hyperion Elite soldier and snapped their necks in rapid succession. Once that was complete, Matt caught each and every bullet fired out from the guns, slowing time even further so that he could get the numerous projectiles. The Vault Hunter ignored the highly solidifying headache he was receiving or the evident massive drain on his powers this was doing.

No more bullets remained; the rest sat in his hand.

Time resumed normal passage. Matt staggered to the door, where he leaned against it for balance. He held out his hand towards them, dropping the copious bullets onto the ground, representing the action he just took. They made a satisfying clang as they fell to the ground.

'Woah,' Maya admired. Matt fell to the ground and vomited. Gaige and Aurora ran over to him.

'Ugh,' Lilith observed, her face contorting in disgust.

'Are you OK?' Gaige comforted, rubbing his shoulder.

'You can't use your Chronokinesis so richly,' Aurora guided. 'You could die if you use it too much!'

'I know, but if I hadn't slowed down time as much as I did, you'd all be dead.'

'As much as we're all grateful for you saving us, killer,' Lilith replied. 'That won't mean much if you die from it.'

'I can't believe we got ambushed!' Gaige angrily chastised herself.

'Ah, don't lose sleep over it,' Matt counselled, uneasily getting to his feet. He put his hand on her shoulder. 'Your device is still detecting a signature though.'

'But it keeps getting scrambled.'

'Gaige?' Maya called. 'I think I found the solution to that dilemma.' She took out a device from one of the bodies. Gaige lit up, going over and taking it from her.

'Scrambler!' She exclaimed. 'I can use it to deactivate the network!'

'Go ahead, kid,' Axton permitted, although it wasn't required. She wasted no time hacking into the device and deactivating the scrambling network.

'You got it?' Matt asked, although it was evident that she had succeeded.

'Yes!' Gaige rejoiced, clenching her fist in celebration. 'I know where it is now!'

'By all means, show the way, slab,' Brick replied.

'Sanctuary lives / The Raiders stand a chance now / We should waste no time,' Zer0 added. Matt nodded, and gestured for Gaige to lead on. She turned around and took a sharp right to walk back down the corridor. The others followed her, avoiding any soldiers that may be nearby and may place the bunker on high alert again.

Gaige appeared to be quite excited to help Sanctuary out, and to succeed in one of their main goals finally. They'd needed a shield upgrade for a while, and this capacitor and generator was industrial, so should protect a mining ship rather successfully.

She was constantly looking at her ECHO map so that she knew where it was. Every so often, Gaige would additionally tell them that it was close, although they would still be waiting for another few minutes.

'Any day now, Gaige,' Aurora ushered. She ignored her rushing her along.

'It's definitely here!' She announced, stepping in front of a door and opening it. It was locked. 'Dammit!'

'Allow me,' Aurora cited sheepishly. She jammed in a keycard, and the light turned green, allowing access. 'You should search bodies better.' She directed this at generally no one, but showed evident triumph in succeeding over Gaige.

'Whatever,' the Mechromancer waved off, as the industrial security door opened. It revealed the shield components, which were plugged into a testing circuit to verify its functionality.

'There it is!' Gaige pointed ecstatically at the circuit. Matt went over to unplug, and was relieved to discover that there were no sirens, no security measures, or any ounce of backlash that they had taken out the shield capacitor and generator. He was slightly taken aback by this lack of resistance – both in the circuit and in the theft of the item. Perhaps it was not important.

'Here, Lil,' Matt handed the two fairly large components to her, and she gratefully took them.

'Nice!' She admired them. 'These will _definitely_ suit us.'

There was sudden, loud blaring of alarms following that statement, which made Matt groan in his head with frustration. His instincts slowed time as the secure Hyperion began to shut. It was a large door, but it should have shut incredibly fast. Realisation dawned upon him, as Matt recognised that he had slowed down time far beyond any capability ever shown before.

There was no way, at all, he could just "carry" everyone out of the room; Matt had the ability to increase power in a punch by use of his Chronokinesis, not super strength. So, instead, he moved out as many as he could at once – two. He moved out Brick first due to his extreme weight making it much worthwhile to go with him first, and then took out Mordecai next to him. Once the two were safely out, he ran back in, noticing that the door had apparently moved so little that he could not notice it during that time.

Gaige and Zer0 were next, and he found it much easier to push them past the door. Matt even found time to align their posture neatly so they wouldn't fall due to the excessive speed.

Once he was done with those two, he moved Lilith and Axton, but was slightly too cumbersome. The shield components fell out of her hand, but Matt didn't notice until he turned back around.

The technology was floating in the air, unmoving. Not an ounce of movement, yet it was heavy.

He widened his eyes, not thinking at first that his abilities weren't slowing time. Matt had _stopped_ time, not slowed it. Evidently, he didn't know what to think upon seeing this. Ignoring the impossibilities, he was afraid a little about how long he'd be able to hold this, and what this what do to his body.

At least he could save everyone.

Gasping from offset exhaustion, he took the two shield upgrades out of mid-air, into Lilith's hands. Matt wasted no time in getting Aurora to safety, moving her out of the room. As he did so, he could feel overwhelming weakness in his bones, causing Matt to desire to vomit briefly, however, he fought back the feeling.

Once Aurora was in safety, he ran back into the room to shut off the systems.

Matt succeeded, somehow, but not fast enough.

The next move was for Matt to get out. Right now. He tried to go for the door, but the Anomaly found that he was almost unable to move. Time began to flow; the Vault Hunter could feel it in his bones.

Before he knew it, the door was shut on him, and time resumed. Matt took a deep breath.

'What? What happened?' Gaige asked. 'The door's shut!'

'Where's Matt?' Aurora conjectured worriedly.

'I'm on the other side,' he declared, a notable sense of defeat in his voice. 'I managed to get you all out, but…stopping time takes a lot out of you.'

'You stopped time?!' Lilith enquired in disbelief. She was quickly drowned out by Gaige.

'Hold on!' She exclaimed. 'I'll get you out!' The Mechromancer then hurriedly tried to re-enter the card, but it buzzed a rejecting sound and flashed red. She instead used her arm's circuitry to attempt to hack into it. Moments later, the Vault Hunter punched the wall in anger. 'It isn't working!'

'Gaige, you better hurry up!' Axton warned. 'This area's on full alert! There could be more goons here at any moment!'

'I'M TRYING!' She pleaded.

As Gaige constantly attempted to hack back into the door, Matt heard a small beep behind him. He turned around to inspect the sound. Again, the beep sounded quietly and briefly. Matt went over to the circuit where the shield components had been connected. The beep went again. The Anomaly noticed that the panel behind the wires was removable. Hauling it off, Matt looked on in shock.

A timer was counting down.

This bomb was unlike anything he had ever seen. No wires could be seen, nor was there a panel to remove it. Hyperion weren't capable of making this. And Gemini thought of bombs as "uncivilised" and instead favoured tactics over explosions. How made this?

 _It was a trap,_ Matt realised.

'I can almost –'

'Gaige,' he interrupted, but she resumed talking anyway.

'–Get past this, I –'

'Gaige!'

'–Just need to –'

'GAIGE LISTEN!' Matt demanded. She went silent. 'There's a bomb in here. It's beyond anything I've ever seen. The only thing I can discern is its radius: this entire underground network.'

'Oh my god,' Aurora uttered.

'We just walked right into a trap,' Maya understood now.

'Dammit!' Gaige yelled in manic defeat, banging on the door. 'No, no, no…you have to be able to defuse it!'

'No, I can't,' Matt conceded. 'I'm sorry, Gaige. You need to get out. Now.'

'No way!' She protested. 'I'm not leaving you.'

'Matty…' Aurora fought back her urge to cry. 'You can't just give up.'

'I don't think even a master explosives expert like that Tiny Tina could even defuse this. No one can.'

'I can't just let you _die_!' Gaige continuously objected.

'Matt, we're not just going to let you do this,' Lilith inserted.

'He's got no way out of this, slabs,' Brick noticed. 'Matt's trying to get _us_ to safety because he can't save _himself.'_

'Exactly,' Matt agreed. 'Get out while you can.'

'MATT!' Gaige pleaded, banging on the door harder.

'If you don't leave, then you all die. Then you getting the shield upgrades would've been pointless. Go!'

'He's right,' Axton realised. 'We have to go.'

'Of course _you_ would say that!' The Mechromancer argued. 'You hate him!'

'Listen to him, Gaige,' Maya adjoined. She could hardly believe what she was hearing.

'I don't know about this…' Lilith thought aloud. 'If you really believe this is the only way, Matt.'

'I do.'

'The Anomaly / Has now made his sacrifice / A hero indeed,' Zer0 venerated.

'Come on, Matt! We can't do this!' Gaige disputed.

'It's been an honour to meet all of you. Gaige, 'Ora, everyone, it's been a blast. No pun intended.' Matt ignored her disagreement, slightly sniggering at the end part.

'How are you making jokes when you're about to die?' The Mechromancer emphasised, leaning on the door.

'Gaige?'

'What?' She asked, hot tears falling from her eyes.

'Can you do something for me?'

'Anything.'

'Stay strong – no matter _what_ happens. Stay true to yourself despite whatever is thrown your way. Never give up on those around you and _never_ forget who you are. Remember: there's almost nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it. Can do all that? For me?'

'Of course, Matt!' Gaige agreed, tears streaming.

He tapped a few buttons on his ECHOear. 'I've sent all my Vault Instincts data to Aurora's ECHOear. Find the Vault, and destroy the monster residing within, please?'

'You got it,' Lilith accepted.

'Matty, you can't be serious!' Aurora excessively opposed. The bomb changed the tempo of its beeps, this time in bursts of two, indicating its eminent detonation.

'There isn't much time!' Matt presaged. 'Brick, get them out of here.'

'C'mon slabs, we have to go.'

'How can you just _leave_ him?!' Gaige cried. 'He's gonna die!' He picked up both her and Aurora in his arms, carrying them on his shoulders. 'Put me down, Brick!'

'Let me go, you brute!' Aurora demanded, banging on his back in response.

'Go!' Matt ordered. Instantly, the Hunters bolted in the other direction.

'No! Take me BACK!' Gaige argued. 'MATT!' The voice was drowned out by Aurora's.

'Matt, please! No!' she begged, although her voice and Gaige's were starting to get quieter. It was unsurprising that now she'd stopped using the nickname.

Eventually I couldn't tell whose voice was what.

'LET ME GO! MATT, I…'

He didn't hear any more of that.

The Anomaly stood there, realising his loss. Caine might not even know. Of all the ways to go, Matt never suspected it would be to a bomb. Hyperion had never intended to kill him before, nor did he think that they would attempt to do so. Apparently, Matt was their property, so why they would terminate it so flippantly and sporadically was weird.

 _At least that Vault would be found sometime._

* * *

 **So…Matt is in an awkward position. He's pretty much doomed. We'll see.**

 **So, this one was really fun to write simply because of Gaige. Her manic hyperactivity is so enjoyable to write, since she is overenthusiastic and loves killing things to the point where she acts somewhat overconfident.**

 **I also just realized that many of these are named after Zer0's skills (since they all fit) so I will try to include some more from Gaige, Axton, Maya and Salvador. (Although I don't like to use Salvador's since most of them are quite…lecherous so they don't match what goes on the chapter.)**


	10. Ruin

**Man, I suppose planning it out makes it easier to write, doesn't it? The aftermath of the chaos that went on last chapter shall follow into this one. The story's still got a ways to go, though…**

* * *

 **Chapter Ten: Ruin**

* * *

Shortly, the Vault Hunters escaped the bunker, except for Matt. Aurora noticed that, as they got out, the door locked automatically. They slowed down in the grounds of the Friendship Gulag. This gave Gaige enough time to slip out of Brick's grasp.

'MATT!' She cried desperately. The girl bolted back towards the bunker. Gaige almost made it within ten meters of the steps, but was interrupted by the explosion. The massive explosion threw her back and onto the ground, leaving her staring at the blaze. She took several deep breaths. 'NOOOOOOOOOOOO!'

The others caught up to her, standing despondently beside her. Tears were flowing constantly, and her sobbing was vociferous and extended. Brick finally let go of Aurora, who fell to the ground in despair.

'What just happened, amigos?' Mordecai asked over the ECHO.

'There was a bomb,' Lilith explained. 'Matt was trapped in a room with it.'

'He's dead,' Aurora continued. 'No one survives that.'

'Oh.'

There was a seething silence among the Vault Hunters, looking solemnly at the fire that was spiralling from the explosion. The stillness threatened to lash them if they attempted to speak anything intelligible. What could be said in this situation? Someone who they had started to care for dearly had just died in front of their eyes!

Aurora struggled to pipe up with what the woman knew needed to be said.

'My parents were supposed to arrive tomorrow,' she told everyone, tears welling. 'They're expecting Matt. What…what am I supposed to tell them?'

'I'm sorry, Aurora,' Maya apologised to her, although an apology was unneeded. Gaige continued crying, even after Lilith put a hand on her shoulder.

'I'm sorry, Gaige. I really am,' she said. 'His death won't be in vain. That Vault Monster is going down.'

'He was a hero,' Axton noted. Aurora's weeping resulted in her speech being jumbled ever so slightly.

'I didn't want him to be a hero! I wanted him to be my…' She struggled to finish that last word, but it was easily implied what that word was intended to be.

'We can mourn later / But now, we do as was asked / And get that new shield,' Zer0 reasoned. He helped the two of them to their feet, and they reluctantly made their way back to Sanctuary.

The Gulag was in ruins, and would be for a long time. The Raiders may not even be able to get any use out of it. However, a new shield would do them fine.

But what Gaige needed was a new heart.

* * *

 _One day later_

* * *

Aurora received the alert on her ECHO device rather quickly. Her parents had landed on Pandora, and had evaded Gemini better than she had expected. From what her device told her, they were in Overlook, too.

Once she had made her way into the Crimson Raider HQ, the Gunslinger told them where she was going. Gaige was not there, which the woman expected of her.

No one had seen her for at least 12 hours. Sounds of a blowtorch angrily at work were easily audible when near her house. It didn't take a detective to recognise that she was using her work to get past her grief.

Aurora didn't altogether care what Gaige was doing. If the girl hadn't decided to get so close to him, then she would've been fine. The Vault Hunter cared little any more if that girl did indeed have feelings for Matt, because now it didn't matter that much.

There wasn't any time-wasting when it came to coming to Overlook, even though she was dreading some of it. She loved her parents, but she didn't love explaining the Matt situation. No one would. Besides, her parents knew that she loved him when they knew each other, so that was making it especially harder.

'Hi honey!' Called a voice. It was her mother, standing next to the grinder in standard clothing from Atrios-6 – being trader's clothing. Standing next to her was her dad.

'Hey, Miss Borealis,' he teased. That nickname was so old and so stupid, but it still brought up good memories for both of them.

'Hey mom! Hey dad!' She welcomed, going over to them and hugging them. 'Was the trip alright?'

'It was great,' her mother replied. 'But we don't quite get why it was necessary.'

'I don't want Gemini coming after either of you. It's safer here.'

'Where there are Stalkers, Threshers, Varkids, Bandits, Crystalisks, Spiderants, Rakk, Skags, Hyperion and Vaults?' Her father reminded her, evidently not too convinced.

'And _that.'_ Aurora pointed up at Sanctuary, majestically floating in the sky.

'What's that?' Her mother asked.

'Sanctuary. One of the only truly safe places on Pandora,' the young woman informed them.

'Is Matt up there?' Aurora's dad wondered. Her expression instantly dropped to a crestfallen, more depressed look.

'Yeah, where _is_ Matt?' Her mom added. 'Aurora?'

'Matt, well, he's…' she was well aware of the difficulty that she was having uttering this, and despised every second of it. 'He's dead. He died in an explosion.'

'Oh, baby girl, I'm so sorry,' her mother comforted, holding her in her arms. 'I had no idea.'

'He was a good man,' her dad solaced, stroking her hair. 'And I know you really loved him.'

'C'mon,' Aurora ushered. 'We should get to Sanctuary.'

* * *

 _Two hours later_

* * *

Gaige and Lilith observed the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve up from Mordecai's coupe. Multiple Gemini soldiers were patrolling it, holding their guns tightly. There were Loaders in the Hyperion observation zones, but they weren't Hyperion Loaders. Their design bore a rhombus, gemstone logo with an airbrush "G" in the centre.

'Gemini,' Lilith muttered distastefully.

'The Gemini Corporation manufactures Loaders?' Gaige asked in disbelief. Lilith nodded.

'They were guarding the Gemini Armoury,' she replied in confirmation.

For the past hour and a half, Gaige and Lilith had been scouting out the location to see if they could find any more data on the location of the Vault. Aurora had recently informed them that Gemini had taken over the location as an outlet for Stock and Data Exchange, since Hyperion would likely not allow them to use the Hyperion Info Stockade to store it.

Her parents worked with Gemini – although their true allegiance was to their daughter – and they said that the information on the Vaults would likely be there. This reminded Gaige of her raid of the Info Stockade a while back.

Most of her Vault Hunter allies questioned her judgement for this mission, not altogether certain that the girl would able to maintain focus on the mission, giving their unnecessary casualty recently. "Unnecessary casualty" was what Gaige herself called it, and was adamant on that. Matt would have disagreed, if he was alive.

But he wasn't, although Gaige didn't find it easy to admit that.

Aurora seemed to be holding up better than her. However, the keyword there was 'seemed'. She had a different reaction compared to Gaige, not showing any kind of weakness and refusing to. In comparison, the Mechromancer had evidently taken it hard, and had only chosen to go on this mission as solid proof that she was still useful.

The Wildlife Exploitation Preserve echoed silence amongst its large geographical area. It wasn't really an exploitation of wildlife creatures, nor would it be a preserve, as not only do Hyperion not even technically own it, but all the creatures either had ran away due to Mordecai's escapade to release them or had been moved away to some offsite or off-planet location.

'What do you think?' Gaige asked. 'How many of those dudes are there?'

'Maybe a hundred,' Lilith estimated. 'But they won't have moonshots, so it shouldn't be too hard to get through the entire complex.'

'You want to just fight through?' she realised.

'Well, we already know how many of those guys there are,' she reasoned. 'So we don't need a good vantage point anymore.'

'Fine. Just don't teleport me.'

'Too late!' Lilith laughed, grabbing her shoulder, her arm glowing orange. There was a swirl of purple and they disappeared and reappearing just before the Gemini patrol. Gaige didn't seem too pleased.

'Lilith! You can't just teleport me without warning!' She complained.

'Keep your voice down!' She whispered. 'You don't want to attract them just yet.'

'As if a burst of purple energy hasn't done that already!' The Mechromancer argued. Lilith looked around to observe if they were about to be bombarded with enough soldiers to blow up a small city. There were few seconds of silence but nothing happened. The Gemini Corporation's lackeys had not discovered their presence.

'What we're gonna do is charge them,' Lilith suggested. 'We have to follow through.' Gaige nodded, although was less focussed on how she was going to take them down and more when.

'Ready,' she confirmed.

'Good, because you're leading the charge.'

'What? Why?'

'So I know that your head's in the game.'

'I'm _fine,_ Lilith. I can fight.'

'People's real emotions can easily be hidden under a shell,' the Siren reasoned. 'It is how many people deal with grief.'

'Is that what happened to you?' Gaige grew a cheeky smile which she failed to null or lessen. Lilith suddenly went dark.

'That was uncalled for. Don't bring that up again. I'm trying to help you, you know.'

'Whatever.'

'Let's just go and get this mission done,' she replied. 'For Matt?'

'For Matt,' Gaige agreed. She took out a Gatling gun and checked it was loaded. It was. Lilith nodded and took out a Double Anarchy weapon. It _was_ Matt's, but they had to go somewhere, even Gaige had to admit that. The fallen one never even used it, especially since he had a fairly varied range of weapons in his cache that suited his purposes fine and didn't need it so much.

 _Still a cool weapon though,_ the Mechromancer thought.

Gaige ran in and took no hesitation in firing. Lilith followed behind her. The Gemini soldiers immediately fired back, and two G-GUN Loaders began firing.

'FULL FORCE AUTHORISED,' announced one of the two G-GUN Loader. Gaige shot off the limb which held its gun, quite literally disarmed. She didn't need Deathtrap at the moment. The Loader charged up his eye beam, but Gaige barraged it with enough bullets to disable its eye and blew off its leg, deactivating it.

Lilith fired her Double Anarchy, admiring the swirling bullets as they flew through the air. They travelled towards the heads of two of the Gemini soldiers, dealing massive damage while simultaneously piercing through his armour. Their bodies dropped to the ground, dead. Gaige fired inaccurately at the remaining three enemies, being the Gemini GUN Loader, the two Gemini soldiers and one Gemini Deceptor. Most of her bullets missed, but when they did hit, they dealt substantial damage, dispatching them quickly. Once they dropped to the ground, Gaige did not celebrate over-emphatically, but forced a smile when Lilith looked at her.

'Nice,' the Siren commended. 'Although, there's still a ways to go.' Gaige nodded, and they headed for the door.

They were fully prepared to take on whatever threat lay ahead. Gemini weren't a challenge, but then again, they weren't so prominent on Pandora. Additionally, they didn't know of them so well. Aurora often claimed they were worse in high numbers, and when they took in their advanced military reinforcements, the Corporation would squash almost anyone within moments.

To Lilith, the imposing nature of Gemini as they solidified their campaign reminded her of Hyperion's rise to power. That was what lead to Lilith to be careful in not underestimating their threat. At least they didn't have some insane psychopath like Handsome Jack as the leader.

The closest thing was apparently Caine, but they hadn't met him yet. Lilith wanted to, and Aurora had shown them a picture of him too.

Caine was a short-haired blonde, with a scar on the side of his face that apparently had been sustained thanks to a barrel exploding in his face. He had a grim face, with a muscled complexion that wasn't too prominent or too weak. The Vault Hunter often wore full battle armour, complete with upgrades such as lasers on the gauntlets and a built-in shield with a high capacity.

The guy was never too sane, like Jack, and followed Gemini to the end. They took him as a regular trainee as a child, long before Matt, before working his way up the ranks and achieving the title of Vault Hunter two years ago. The title still treated him as a mercenary over someone who raids Vaults, which was something Caine liked.

The man would not get to that Vault before they did.

Now, they needed those data files.

Lilith went for the door, and pressed the button. She remembered how the door worked for them now, once Gaige did some tinkering. It slid open compliantly.

There were multiple Gemini Loaders in the immediate vicinity. A G-BUL Loader patrolled across the large open surveillance space, with a G-PWR Loader nearby, its rotary blades not activated. Five further Loaders stepped down the steps to their left – three G-GUN Loaders, one G-SGT Loader and one badass G-Loader. The G-GUN Loaders noticed them first.

'TERMINATE SUBJECTS,' the G-GUN Loader called out. The total seven Loaders initiated an offensive formation on their charge towards the duo.

Gaige instinctively threw out Deathtrap, and Lilith entered Phasewalk. She targeted the PWR Loader, fully aware that Gaige's bullets would just deflect of its spinning blades. Lilith went of Phasewalk behind the Loader, and Phaseblasting it. Its blades stopped spinning for a few seconds, long enough for Deathtrap to claw off its arms. Lilith shot the final few bullets to destroy it.

That was a good start, but there were still six more Loaders to go.

They were both careful to dodge the attacks of the Badass Loader. They needed to save it until last, as it was more powerful with an entourage.

Gaige fired quickly around the three GUN Loaders, forcing them to collect together in a crowd. She smiled slightly, pleased that her spur-of-the-moment plan had worked. Lilith Phaseblasted them and impaired their limbs, slowing them. This allowed Gaige to hit all of them and destroy them, despite the inaccuracy in her shots.

'Well that went well, I guess,' she commented noncommittally. Unfortunately, Gaige had let her guard down, and the Badass Loader's rockets hit her head on. She was thrown on the ground. Once Lilith destroyed the G-SGT Loader with a Phasewalk-enhanced punch, she ran over to her and gave her hand.

'You're getting distracted!' The Siren warned her. 'You can't afford to be unfocussed right now!' Gaige took her hand and pulled her up.

The G-BUL Loader managed to approach far enough to see it an option to charge with its shield, sliding across the floor. Lilith jumped over it and shot off its shield arm. The Loader immediately ceased that attempt, and Deathtrap initiated a barrage of attacks that sliced it up into malfunctioning parts.

Gaige reloaded her machine gun and fired unendingly at the Badass Loader, carefully dodging the rockets while simultaneously getting closer. She nodded to Lilith to confirm that she had the robot distracted. So the Siren immediately entered Phasewalk, causing the bot to take away some of its attention from Gaige to keep a look out for her.

The damage was starting to pile up now that the Mechromancer was getting attacked much less. Lilith exited Phasewalk just in front of the Loader, and landing a punch on one of his arms, blasting right through it. Stumbling back, the Badass Loader took a second to recalibrate its surroundings and adapt its battle strategy.

 _These Loaders must have every single battle strategy downloaded into their memory banks!_ Lilith recognised. _These guys are much stronger than Hyperion Loaders!_

Deathtrap went in for a strike, but the Badass Loader emitted some kind of frequency which deactivated her invention, forcing Gaige to dedigistruct him.

'Dammit!' She cursed, as her robot began to return into her arm. She reloaded her gun, and fired again. Her aim was off, missing almost every single bullet. Lilith fired her Double Anarchy at the Loader with extreme speed and reaction. Her Phasewalk seemed to be fluctuating, like she had overused her abilities. Gaige got flashes of Matt, how his nose would often bleed with overuse, and how his muscles would weaken once he'd used up all of his adrenaline.

 _I guess she's been worn down as of late,_ she thought. _We both have._

Observing how Lilith acted, several further thoughts rose to the forefront of Gaige's mind.

 _Their powers…_ she realised. _They're so…similar! Maya said Matt's abilities were Siren-level, but it doesn't make sense how Hyperion would be able to replicate that! If they could, wouldn't they be more powerful? Was Matt…connected…to Sirens somehow? Perhaps this place, or maybe even the Vault, might hold the answers._ She resented herself for not realising this when it would've been useful.

If Matt wasn't dead.

Little time elapsed before the Gemini Badass Loader had been dismantled into an electrified heap of scrap metal. Lilith and Gaige continued down through the Preserve, making their way up the stairs. On their way, they opened some ammo crates in order to restock quickly.

'Hey, you two!' Called a voice demandingly from behind them. They'd just been making their way towards the bridge when someone stopped them.

Gaige spun around to see a Battle Architect, holding his submachine gun tightly and close to his chest. Lilith noticed this, and was about to strike when she stopped her. It seemed like not all Hyperion agents had left the place. This Architect seemed to be one of the few maintaining guard.

'We might be able to use him for information,' she suggested.

'Are you sure?'

'Well, he looks pretty weak.'

Lilith nodded, and Gaige walked over to the Architect, with a stern look on her face.

'Now you listen here,' she addressed, with pure aggression in her voice. 'If you want to make it out alive, you're going to listen to everything I say.' Gaige had an imposing vigour about her, which was maximised by her taking out a large Maliwan rocket launcher and pointing it straight at the Architect's face.

'O-OK!' The man immediately complied. He wasn't even attempting to hide the vulnerability and fear in his vocal chords. Without a second thought, the Architect dropped his weapon to the ground. Gaige passed over her rocket launcher to Lilith, so that proper interrogation could be done.

'What's Hyperion planning?' She demanded. Gaige pulled him closer to her angry, pissed off face. He stuttered in speech. 'Tell me!'

'I don't have high enough clearance to know everything!' He admitted. 'All I know is that the new director is hunting down some Vault, and he's partnered with the Gemini Corporation to do it!'

'Why did they blow up the Gulag?' Gaige immediately replied. 'They can't have just been trying to take down some Vault Hunters!'

'No, that wasn't the reason!' The Architect confirmed. 'They had multiple motives. One was kill all of you. Another was to prevent you from getting the shield upgrades. The third…'

'What? Spit it out!'

'There's radio chatter about this dude called Matt. Some kind of experiment that got away,' he continued. Gaige's eyes widened.

'Matt's dead.'

'Exactly! They needed to end his connection.'

'To what?' The Mechromancer was clueless as to what he was talking about.

'To…Sirens.' Gaige had been correct. Lilith was shocked.

'What the hell are you talking about?!' The fiery Siren demanded.

'The Genisys Project. I know what it entailed.'

'You're more than just an Architect, aren't you?' Gaige figured out.

'No. Truth be told, this is the first time I've been out in the field. I'm a scientist, not a soldier.'

'What happened in the Genisys Project?' Lilith enquired, still pointing Gaige's rocket launcher.

'Genisys was an experiment to merge natural-born humans…and Sirens.' Neither of them could quite believe what they were hearing. 'So they took DNA from one of their own. Angel, I think her name was?'

'She was Handsome Jack's daughter,' Gaige confirmed.

'Yeah,' the Architect remembered. 'Once Jack allowed it, they took a blood sample. They infused it with ancient Eridian technology, and ancient Siren energy. In the project, Angel was made it energise it to her fullest capabilities, in hopes that the blood might transfer Siren powers.'

'That's impossible,' Lilith cited. 'Siren abilities don't work that way. They aren't passed down through conventional means. It is only when one Siren dies, that another is born to take its place. It doesn't pass through genetic properties. You can't "create" a Siren.'

'Jack always said only six can exist in the universe at any one time,' the Hyperion agent reflected. 'So when it came to testing…it was impossible to survive. Every time they tried injecting the sample, the subject would likely die, usually through disintegration. Their bodies couldn't handle the power, and I guess Mother Nature doesn't like it when you start messing around with her toolbox.'

Lilith tightened her grip on the rocket launcher.

'They… _we_ started to get desperate. So the head scientists of the project started trying to adapt the bodies of their subjects in hopes that the project would be a success. Then one test subject with perfect health and physique fell right into their hands.'

'Matt,' Gaige understood. 'You kidnapped him.'

'I was one of the scientists working on the project,' he admitted, showing evident remorse for it. 'I was one of the scientists working on _Matt._ The head forced us to do some pretty hardcore operations to grant him some enhancements. We almost destroyed his body and then repaired it with new upgrades over and over…until the sample was finally injected.

'That Matt guy…he handled the power far better than we expected. He'd clearly acknowledged the endless pain he went through. Once that Vault Hunter gained powers on par with Sirens, he wasted no time in escaping.'

'You still haven't explained why you needed to cut off his connection,' Lilith complained, her fingers tightening around the trigger of the rocket launcher. The Architect jumped back.

'Hyperion and Gemini realised something. The Vault is…or was…connected to Matt. He had a connection to Sirens, which means he had a connection to the newest Vault on this planet. He may not have realised it, but while he was alive, the Vault would not open. He was keeping it closed; the Anomaly's death was an attempt to force it to open.

'That is why the Gulag was blown up. They knew he'd be there. He wasn't just someone who happened to caught in the blast…no, Matt was the target.' Gaige had heard quite enough of this. Hearing this Hyperion worm speak was reopening old wounds.

'You Hyperion bastard!' She howled, running towards him. The Architect could not react before Gaige grabbed him and began beating him into a pulp with her metal arm. 'It's your fault he's dead! You hear me? _It's your fault!_ '

'Gaige, stop!' Lilith commanded, dropping her launcher, but she did not listen. She beat him endlessly, perhaps breaking some serious bones.

'You experimented on him like a guinea pig! You caused him intense pain! You should've just left him ALONE! But NO, you instead weaponised him! YOU MURDERED HIS SISTER!' Gaige continued punching brutally, and went in for another, but Lilith caught her strike.

'What did I say about getting DISTRACTED?!' The Siren bellowed. Gaige snatched her metal arm away from her grasp and punched the Architect so hard that he died due to intense and sudden force creating a whiplash effect that snapped his neck. He slumped to the ground, in a heap of bloodiness and flesh.

'I _hate_ Hyperion,' the Mechromancer angrily declared, placing obvious emphasis on her own disgust.

'Gaige, what the hell was that?' Lilith demanded. The girl turned away from the Siren. 'You can't do that!' There was silence form the other end. 'Do you think this is what Matt wanted?'

'Say that again, _I dare you,'_ The little redhead bitterly replied.

'Do you honestly think he'd want you to be wallowing in your own grief all the time?'

'You wanted to kill Jack after _he_ killed the person _you_ loved.'

'Don't even go there,' Lilith warned acrimoniously.

'No I will,' Gaige disobeyed. 'What's the difference between you and me in that regard, huh? You did the _same_ _thing_ you're criticising me for!'

'And the anger blinded me; it played me right into Jack's hands!' The Siren reminded her. 'The difference is that _I_ show restraint. I know when and when not to pick a fight. I have learned from my mistakes, and I understand what you're going through. But trust me: this isn't how you should deal with your grief.'

'I won't let anyone get in the way of me exacting revenge.'

'Listen to yourself! Matt wouldn't want this. He would want you to stay true to yourself.' Suddenly, Gaige got flashes of Matt.

 _"_ _Stay strong – no matter what happens. Stay true to yourself despite whatever is thrown your way. Never give up on those around you and never forget who you are."_

Gaige dropped to the ground, recognising Lilith was right. She didn't hesitate to begin crying as she thought about everything Matt had said to her before his death, and how she had not been fulfilling her promise to him.

'I'm sorry!' She asked for forgiveness, although it wasn't too easily heard given her crying and how she had her head to her hands. Lilith put her arms around her, comforting Gaige as she wept. 'You're right! Matt wouldn't have wanted this!'

'It's OK, Gaige,' the Siren counselled, rubbing her shoulder. 'We all feel unsure what to do when someone we care about has died. But you're getting through the grief.'

'What-what do you mean?'

'You denied that you weren't in shape for future missions; you would show evident anger whenever anyone brought it up; you bargained your way into _this_ mission; and now you've experienced depression that made you aggressive whenever you were reminded of Matt. You realise what's next right?'

'What?'

'Acceptance, Gaige. You're on your way to getting over it.'

Gaige looked up at her. For the first time in a while, she seemed happy. Happy to finish this mission, to make Matt proud from beyond his grave.

 _Thank you, Matt._

* * *

 _Six days later_

* * *

The rubble was tremendous. It had been so colossal it had filled the sinkhole of the underground and still managed to create a pile on top. But the fire had gone out a while ago. Luckily, Hyperion had bethought an emergency sprinkler system. It took a while activate since its sensors were messed up, but the water certainly put out the fire.

The door to the underground system of the Friendship Gulag had been bent in half, and the entire network itself had collapsed. Every Hyperion agent got out, their target presumed destroyed in the blast.

However, no one noticed the truth. From within the immense debris, a piece of rock wall lining trembled in movement. It was thrown away. A hand reached out desperately, clawing at the ground for some kind of grasp. It attempted to pull itself out somewhat, but only managed to advance a few millimetres forward.

The hand had a sleeve coloured dark navy-midnight blue.

And it flickered black and red lightning, as crimson energy began circling around it.

* * *

 **Yep, another cliff-hanger, sue me. (Don't actually.) But yeah, did you really think I'd kill off the main character – especially so soon? I'm not George R.R. Martin…**

 **That happened to be a decent length, if I do say myself.**

 **Also, finally revealed the purpose of the Genisys Project, and also why it gave a reason as to why Matt has Chronokinesis as a power in general. (I said I'd do that, didn't I?) It's almost entirely Siren-based, although the project boosted his energy efficiency and stamina with it. Further information will be given later.**

 **Yeah anyway, Chapter Eleven is around the corner.**


	11. Anarchy

**And the eleventh chapter is here! This didn't take too long to write, but enjoy anyway.**

 **Also, a bit of a Vault explainer in this chapter, which I'll go into detail more in later chapters. That's why I decided not to immediately upload this; I wanted just to leave it since it's pretty exposition-heavy.**

 **So, without further being any more loquacious…**

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven: Anarchy**

* * *

 _Three weeks later_

The Vault Hunters were collected around the scanner in Crimson Raider HQ.

'We're getting closer to the Vault more than ever before,' Lilith announced proudly. 'It's somewhere beyond the Highlands, somewhere between it and the Dust.'

'But it keeps going off the radar,' Aurora reminded her. 'Like it keeps…fading in and out of existence.'

'Is that what your Vault Instincts tell you?' Axton guessed. She nodded.

'Like all Vaults, it possesses supernatural qualities unique to itself. However, this one seems to be _way_ different from _anything_ I learnt during the Gemini Vault Hunter Training Program.'

'We haven't given up yet!' Gaige exclaimed excitedly. 'We'll definitely get that Vault.'

'Enthusiasm / Such a great aspect to have / I admire you,' Zer0 venerated, displaying a wide smiley face on his visor.

'Thanks, Zer0!' She accepted.

'Careful, amigo,' Mordecai cautioned convivially. 'You don't want to stroke her ego too much.'

'There's nothing wrong with a little confidence!' Maya laughed.

'She's had it in bounds all week, compañeros,' Salvador observed. 'It's great! She's going to need it for the inevitable fight!'

'Thanks guys!' Gaige thanked.

'Aurora: what did your parents say about Gemini?' Lilith asked her.

'They've been pushing ahead on their plans ever since the destruction of the Gulag a month ago.'

'Of course, the Vault's going to open for them now that Matt isn't subconsciously keeping it closed.' Aurora hesitated at Lilith's response about Matt.

'Yeah, still can barely believe all that. Merged with a Siren's powers? I don't think even Gemini could quite comprehend it.'

'How close are they getting?' The Siren inquired.

'Well, it's hard to get a location on something that keeps disappearing. Every time they think they're getting somewhere, the Vault disappears. The Corporation's elite higher-ups are theorising that maybe it changes it location every so often.'

'And…?'

'It's not true,' Aurora informed her. 'My Instincts are more advanced than Hyperion's technology. And Gemini don't share their technology. From what I can tell, the Vault stays in the same location whenever it is in the physical plane.'

'Wait,' Maya halted her. 'Are you implying that this Vault…it disappears into some metaphysical domain every so often?'

'Exactly. I think it's only transitioning because it's been weakened.'

'Now that Matt's dead,' Gaige realised, gesturing worriedly. 'The Vault's opening, like you said. What if…what if the Vault "opening" is it coming into the physical purview?'

'Quite possibly,' Mordecai supposed. 'So if anyone gets too close to it…'

'They'll be able to open it permanently,' Aurora finished, changing the scanner to show the 3D design of a Vault gateway to emphasise her point.

'Well, then, slabs,' Brick addressed. 'It's just a matter of getting to it first!'

'You're damn right it is!' Gaige complimented. 'With the Raiders' patrols and Aurora's Instincts, we've got this, no sweat!' Lilith put a welcoming hand on her shoulder.

'Matt would be proud,' she gratified heart-warmingly. smiling. Gaige repaid the smile, happy with herself.

'Thank you, that means a lot.' The Siren nodded.

'First things first,' Lilith continued. 'We're taking Hyperion head-on. Thanks to Matt, we have better weapons and a better shield. It should be easier to –'

She was interrupted by a vociferous explosion outside. Followed by another. And another. They all ran out onto the balcony. Helios was firing shots, but the shield was absorbing it. That wasn't what was creating the explosions. There was a man riding on what seemed to be some kind of hoverboard, floating outside the barrier of Sanctuary. He was firing lasers from his gauntlets and air pockets straight from his hands.

'Who is that?' Maya asked. The man had short blonde hair and full battle armour. He had a scar which was instantly to recognisable to both Aurora and Axton.

'Caine,' they both told her, with clear animosity in their voices.

' _That's_ Caine?!' Mordecai repeated, not quite believe the display of power he was showing.

'The shield's holding up!' Lilith observed. 'But I don't think it will forever! That Caine guy is putting it under some serious stress!'

'It's a good thing we got a new one! The old one would've been destroyed by now!' Axton relieved.

'We need to draw him out!' Lilith noted. 'Brick, get your buzzards!'

'Wait!' Aurora paused. 'Caine's not stupid. He wouldn't come alone!' She was proven right almost immediately. Flying in hoverbikes were other Gemini-sanctioned Vault Hunters. Aurora pointed them out.

'Duke Minoosh: he can fire any gun with expert accuracy and damage but needs time to focus.' She was pointing to an African-American man with a bandana around his eyes. 'There: Violet Parker. She fires powerful light from her hands but it takes a lot out of her to do it in rapid succession. It's an evolutionary advantage from her alien race.' Violet was the purple-skinned, pink-haired woman with an entertained look on her face. 'Over there is Arcturus Vaus. He has these…wind funnels generated by his small armbands. They're not _too_ powerful, but can get overwhelming when he fires them fast.' Arcturus was a Caucasian man of Promethean descent.

'Who's left?' Gaige asked. She was feeling underpowered already.

'The fourth besides Caine is my cousin, Dan. He can create holographic projections: physical or intangible. Don't let him distract you. However, once you confuse him, he should not be able to target you easily.'

'Did Matt work with all of these people?' Maya asked. She nodded.

'They liked him actually.'

'Guys! Enough reminiscing!' Lilith ordered. 'Their using their combined powers to smash through the shield!' They jumped down from the balcony. Gaige called out Deathtrap to use as a hover.

'Brick! Get your best Buzzard pilots. We'll need them to take those Vault Hunters down!' She told him.

'Good idea, slab!' He went off to go call for some support.

'Wait! Where're you going, Gaige?' Lilith demanded.

'To draw them in!' She replied, hopping on Deathtrap, how held her legs for support. They floated up towards the Gemini Vault Hunters. 'Thank you, aero-jets!'

She flew up and out of the shield. As soon as Caine noticed her, he fired lasers towards her. Deathtrap dodged them, and allowed her to get close.

 _If we can put enough stress on this shield, might be able to create a brief opening,_ Caine thought. _We can distribute enough damage across a widespread area, so that the shock absorption effect is put under pressure._

'Why are you here?' Gaige probed, snatching Caine from his train of thought.

'We're here for Matt!' All of them responded, drawing in around her.

Predictable.

'We heard he was here!' Caine added. 'So we're bringing him in!'

'Caine!' Violet sighed. 'We're not doing this too aggressively. We're just trying to get past the shield. _Then_ we can bring on the sweet pain.' She proved this by firing light at the barrier.

'In case you're forgetting,' Duke reminded, 'Matt's our friend.'

'He made his choice when he left!' The explosive man argued. 'So we're taking down as many of these guys as we can!'

'What?' Gaige cheekily re-joined. 'You want to take down fellow Vault Hunters?' All of the Gemini Hunters' eyes widened except for Caine.

'You're all Vault Hunters?' Arcturus enquired in disbelief.

'Most of us are. You see, the Vault Hunters on this planet never died or left. Gemini just enjoys lying.'

'I'm…sure, they had a reason,' Violet disputed. 'Anyway: Give us Matt or we _will_ be forced to hurt you. Don't think I won't enjoy it.'

'You all really don't know, do you?'

'What do you mean?' Dan queried.

'I don't know why Gemini would send you on this wild goose chase. Maybe they were trying to keep you occupied.'

'What are you talking about?' Vaus repeated.

'Matt's…' she still somewhat struggled to describe it. 'Matt's dead.'

'What?!' All of them took aback, aside from Caine.

'Knew that would happen eventually,' he muttered.

'Hyperion beat you to him. They blew him up.'

'Oh,' Violet said to herself. 'I liked him. He was fun.'

'Your reason to be here is pointless,' Gaige apprised them. 'Leave. There are reinforcements arriving. No one has to get hurt here.'

'Caine, she's right,' Arcturus recognised. 'We must go.' He didn't listen.

'If I don't get to kill Matt…' he started intimidatingly. 'THEN NO ONE GETS TO LIVE!' He used his explosions to propel his way to Gaige, and grabbed her by the throat, deactivating Deathtrap. He propelled her back towards Sanctuary, breaking a small hole – which quickly closed up – in the shield which allowed him to pass through.

Caine threw her into the ground and created a small crater. Gaige struggled to get up from the hole. He picked her up and propelled her into another building, and tried to punch her, but she dodged it. The man got angry even more, and picked her up and threw her into another building, before landing on the ground. Luckily, she had some resistance that meant she did not feel too much pain from it, so she did not take her too long to get back up again.

Zer0, Maya, Axton and Salvador all approached Caine, but he created a large warning shockwave to prevent them from getting close. They were knocked on the ground. Lilith ran towards him, entering Phasewalk and Phaseblasting him. He dodged it, and punched her away.

The Gemini Vault Hunters could only watch, purely unable to intervene. The people screaming and running was a horror to observe. And it was Caine's doing.

Caine fired off three more shockwaves that caused some debris that the other Vault Hunters had to occupy themselves saving civilians. He then continued to attack Gaige.

'MATT WAS MINE TO KILL!' He whined. 'NOT HYPERION!'

He became distracted for a moment when he saw a flash of blue light coming from inside the main building. It wasn't the perfect time for someone to be fast-travelling into Sanctuary.

That increment of time allowed Gaige to land a solid punch on his face.

Rage brewed on his face, as he grabbed Gaige again and used his explosions to slam her into a wall. He impelled himself forwards and persisted his attack on her. One more punch threw Gaige back towards the crater from before, which burrowed even further into the ground. He seemed prepared to kill her, probably through an amalgamation of explosions and lasers.

'You…little…bi–'

 ** _'_ _Language,'_** cautioned a voice behind her. Caine turned around and was shocked. But before he could say anything, he was thrown back into a wall. Gaige looked up.

Matt.

 _He's alive!_ She thought ecstatically, tears of joy quickly forming in her eyes. _No way!_

His arm was swirling red, and had red and black lightning emitting from it, but the rest of his body was dirty, ripped, bloody, and covered in excessive, dangerous injuries. The man seemed to be entirely ignorant of those lacerations.

'Matt, you're alive,' Caine uttered angrily. 'Good…now I can kill you.' He threw more explosions from his hands, throwing himself towards him. Matt calmly stepped to the side, caught his punch with ease, and punched his rib. Caine was flown backwards. Getting up from the rubble he had just created, he fired lasers at long distance, but they all missed thanks to the Anomaly slowing down time.

'A bold move, Caine,' he commented, sounding so calm that it seemed that Matt wasn't even _trying_ to win this fight. He made fighting Caine seem effortless. **'But you don't get to hurt my friends.'** Matt calmly walked towards him, easily catching the attention of his fellow Vault Hunters.

 _Matt survived?!_ Aurora thought in disbelief. _That's impossible!_

 _Always knew that kid had some fight left in him,_ Axton chuckled to himself. _You know what? Maybe that guy isn't so bad._

 _If Matt's alive…_ Lilith wondered. _Why is the Vault still opening?_

'I'm gonna kill you!' Caine threatened, using more propulsion to end up hurtling towards him. Matt slowed down time as the explosive Vault Hunter flew towards him. He ducked under him, and punched his stomach at an angle, sending him flying into to the building on his left.

Getting up from the debris, his jaw dropped. Matt had never been able to slow time to the point where he could easily dodge his attacks – he was often too fast.

 ** _What? No…how can that be?_**

 ** _Open your eyes, and maybe you'll see._**

The mantra rang true in his thoughts, and he opened his eyes, albeit struggling. Once his field of vision was restored, Caine's could only see the figure of Matt Rye careering towards him with a punch.

Matt sucker punched him with the force of a hurricane, sending him soaring back into the air. The shield had re-energised since Caine's attack on it, allowing it to absorb the blast – whereas it would have gone through with relative ease, if the Gemini Vault Hunters were still engaging in on the shield.

'You…pathetic… _Anomo.'_

Caine was sent catapulting back to Sanctuary grounds, back in front of where Matt was. He picked him up, possessing a stern look on his face.

'Go home, Caine. Go running back to Gemini. You have no place here.' Caine could hardly reply, given that he just suffered an unbelievable amount of force. His gauntlets were destroyed; there was no way he would continue this fight in any case. Matt nodded to the Gemini Hunters, who were actually variably pleased to see him, but knew full well that their job was to capture him.

There was no way they could beat Matt, especially now that Caine was rendered temporarily useless. With him down, it would impossible to get past Sanctuary's shield. So they did what the Anomaly was conveying for them to do: fire on the shield.

Once he estimated that enough stress had been put on it, Matt powered up his arm with red energy with a tinge of black in. That little bit of black energy had never been shown before, and it disconcerted Gaige a little as she tried to get up from the crater. It formed lightning.

With about two fifths of his power energised, he uppercut Caine into the air again. Now, he smashed straight through the shield, and back into the air. It took a mere few seconds for the barrier to close up the aperture again. Duke called for the hoverboard to catch him.

'Until we are foolish enough to attack again, Matt!' Dan called, with a hint of cynical, false friendliness in his voice. Dan then turned back to Aurora. 'See you around, _cuz.´_ Aurora hated that nickname.

Matt nodded to him, but Dan was forced to speed off once Brick's buzzards finally arrived. The drivers definitely seemed a little annoyed that they didn't get to shoot or blow anyone up. They groaned as Brick was forced to call them off to return to Thousand Cuts.

There was silence echoing throughout Sanctuary.

By this time, everyone knew of Matt and everyone knew he was supposed to be dead. Even Claptrap was speechless, and he hadn't spoken to Matt once.

Gaige finally clambered out of the crater, groaning. This immediately alerted him to her again, and he hobbled over to her. She noticed his nose was drenched in fresh blood and it was leaking from his mouth.

'Matt,' she beckoned, looking entranced by his appearance.

'Uh, hey,' he coughed. It seemed like he was starting to take his toll from his injuries. He stumbled towards her, causing Gaige to hold him for support.

That didn't work out too well.

'Sorry if I, um, worried y–'

Matt was cut off through weakness in his limbs and intense pain pertaining to his bones. He hadn't paid attention to his own gashes as of late. Now it was coming back to haunt him. It resulted in his falling straight to the ground, unconscious. He allowed the blackness to engulf him, even after hearing the worried voice of Gaige saying "Matt! No!" prior to full darkening.

* * *

 **To be honest, that was quite short. However, I didn't plan on keeping Matt dead for long. I felt like that kind of deterred the whole point of the story – however it is present so that the Vault Hunters become more focussed on hunting the Vault. Once he returns to the land of the living, they will fully go after the Vault.**

 **Moreover, finally gotten to the point of talking about how this new Vault works. I've been teasing it since forever. I suppose it has a minor similarity to the Traveller, since both him and that Vault teleports, except this one teleports between two dimensions, rather than just anyway.**

 **Finally, I realize that it seemed like just mentioning what the Gemini Vault Hunters do very quickly was quite brief, but they show up more later where what they do will be more important. Especially because, well, they'll be fresher in his mind now that they've appeared when he hasn't seen them for a while.**

 **Wow, that was a lot of chit-chat…**


	12. Life Tap

**So, Chapter Twelve has arrived quite fast. It's only been a day since the last update. Not much is really going on in this chapter, but there is some hinted information about Matt's physiology since the Genisys Project which hasn't necessarily been shown before because it hasn't had an opportunity to.**

 **I also think this chapter is probably one of most accurately named. Heh.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twelve: Life Tap**

* * *

 _An unspecified amount of time later_

 _My eyes flicker in and out of consciousness._

 _Where am I?_

 _'_ _So what's wrong with him?' Asks a voice. It sounds like Lilith._

 _That easily answered that question._

 _'_ _Well, frankly, what isn't wrong with him?' Replies another voice. Doctor Zed. So I'm in his clinic. 'He has multiple fractures all over his body, and a good portion of his right arm's experienced third degree burns. There's quite a lot of shrapnel digging into his organs, causing internal bleeding. His spine's been shattered and the joint between his upper and lower left leg has been smashed. He also has some serious gashes in his flesh, which has scarcely clotted. His ribcage has multiple cracks in them, not to mention he also has a concussion.'_

 _'_ _I don't get it,' claims another voice. That sounded like Axton. Axton cares enough to be here? Nice. 'He was able to grind that Caine dude into a pulp. He was able to walk and use all of his limbs no problem!'_

 _'_ _I'm not going to pretend to understand it,' Zed reacts feebly. 'That is physically impossible.'_

 _'_ _His injuries are that serious, huh?' Definitely Aurora. She matched the worriedness in that perfectly. You never stop perturbing about me; do you, 'Ora?_

 _'_ _Serious?! They're terminal!' Zed exclaims, a hint of humour in the inflection of his voice. 'Quite candidly, it's not possible for anyone to have survived this! He should be dead!'_

 _Heck, I wasn't certain how I was alive, either._

 _'_ _Yet somehow he's pulling through,' the voice sounds exactly like Gaige. 'He's a fighter, you know.'_

 _'_ _Think about it,' A voice, which was clearly Maya's, notes. 'He's not buried under a mountain of rubble like when we left. No one would even have known he was there.'_

 _'_ _What are you getting at?' Axton questions wholeheartedly._

 _'_ _No one but himself could have saved him,' Maya explains. 'That means that he pulled HIMSELF out of the debris.' There were widespread gasps emitted the moment she said that. I could hear it._

 _She was right. I remember everything that happened up to his return. Right after the bomb exploded._

* * *

Matt knew that this bomb was clearly intended to destroy the entire bunker, in hopes that it would take him out while preventing them from salvaging anything useful. A smart move by Hyperion, for once.

He was fully aware this bomb was specifically targeted for him, although was not too certain why. The Vault Hunter may have been viewed a property of Hyperion, but according to Gaige, so was Krieg. And Krieg was never beleaguered like this before – if the young Mechromancer's stories were anything to go by.

The Anomaly initially saw no way of surviving this, even if the blast somehow didn't vaporise him, the tonnes of rubble would easily crush him.

As the bomb ticked down its last ten seconds, he took out the sender component of his Bypass locking matrix, and activated it to lock the door.

With five seconds left, a glimmer of hope appeared when Matt noticed a vent near the bomb. It was industrial, maximum structural integrity. It might keep him safe, although the rubble would easily break through. However, with how unpredictable his powers were, they might save him.

He slowed down time without even thinking, and tore off the vent with ease. Matt closed it back up again, feeling his powers wane and time speed up.

Boom.

* * *

 _I snap back to mid-consciousness. Time had definitely passed greatly since the last incidence of somewhat awareness._

 _Let's see… I'm still in Doctor Zed's clinic, which is remarkably clean. But not everyone is here._

 _Zed's doing his thing, injecting about a dozen super-hypos into me in hopes they would actually have an effect. Not to mention a whole host of other drugs, too. He goes off to go get what seem to be some X-Ray reports of my spine._

 _'_ _Hey, Lilith! Come take a look at this!' He calls. It was then that I notice Lilith leaning on the Portable Clinic machine, only slightly in my field of vision. She stops leaning, and proceeds to walk over to him._

 _'_ _What is it?'_

 _'_ _You see this?' Zed seems to be pointing at the X-Ray sheet, but I can't make out what it displays._

 _'_ _It's Matt spine, right?' Lilith needs little confirmation, but requested for it anyway. 'It's all smashed up and fragmented.'_

 _'_ _That was the report from two days ago, when you brought him in.'_

 _Brilliant, now I know how much time has passed. I hope Gaige was doing OK, since she had suffered injuries from Caine. But that didn't seem like it was anything that a hypo or two wouldn't fix._

 _'…_ _So?' Lilith asks impatiently. Doctor Zed goes over to behind the sheets to find something. Once he did – which takes a few seconds – the man passively walks back over to her. He's trying to hide something shocking, which he evidently was about to reveal._

 _'_ _You see…this' – he pulls out another X-Ray sheet – 'is from two hours ago.'_

 _'_ _No way…' Lilith is evidently entirely gobsmacked. What was on that other report?_

 _'_ _Matt's body has made substantial repairs,' the doctor describes. 'His spine is fixing itself up, without the aid of hypos at all.'_

 _My body is what?!_

 _'_ _That's…incredible,' Lilith comments. I strain to hear a sigh of relief, and it's certainly welcoming given my current state._

 _'_ _It's not just incredible, it's impossible,' Zed re-joins. 'His body should not be healing this fast. A shattered spine is something most people NEVER recover from, hypos or not!'_

 _'_ _It must be his Siren-based abilities doing this.'_

 _What?! My powers are connected to Sirens? Is that what happened in the Genisys project? NO WAY! Now that I think about it, I do vaguely remember this sickly-looking girl with blue tattoos on a monitor._

 _'_ _When do you think he'll wake up from his coma?'_

 _Weird. It doesn't FEEL like I'm comatose. I guess I am, though._

 _'_ _I hypothesise…well; he's healing 650% faster than a normal person would. So if Matt even WILL wake, it'll be much sooner than normal.'_

 _Seriously?!_

 _'_ _Seriously?!' Lilith repeats. She's thinking the exact same thing I am._

 _I am trying to hear for Zed's response, but my weak eyes are getting covered in darkness._

* * *

The wreckage had certainly made its way through the vent, as he predicted, but not as massively as he expected.

Matt had no idea how much time had passed, whether it was a few hours or a few days. Being underground was the problem: he could not see the light of day, or the night sky, so there was no way of knowing which one it was.

He looked down to see the immense amount of rubble resting on his back. Matt could not feel his legs, or move them. Though, his spine was still somewhat functional; Matt could tell it was hanging onto the last few strands of cartilage.

However, the vent was holding up just well enough not to impede movement of his arms, although sight was difficult with the rubble covering his head. Surprisingly, his neck was not hurt at all. He couldn't quite figure out the state of it: whether it was broken or not.

With immense struggle, he began to move his arms, and climb out of the remains of the Gulag's underground network. His joints felt like they had been torn from his body, his knuckles felt smashed inwards. Whether it was a blessing or a curse he did not know, but Matt felt nothing below his waist.

At least he was going to make it out of here.

* * *

 _Once I finally regain somewhat knowledge of my surroundings, I can see things have changed once more. Over there in front of me is Axton. Weird. Why is he here?_

 _'_ _Hey, kid,' he greets. 'I don't know if you can hear me right now, but I hope so. I wanted you to know that that sacrifice you made was incredibly noble, and I'm glad you survived. So we're clear, there are no hard feelings between us anymore. Given you were willing to die for us, I can accept you working with us.'_

 _Thanks Ax. I blink again._

 _Even more time passed. Maya and Salvador were off by the door watching._

 _'_ _Stay alive, amigo,' Salvador requests. 'We're only alive because of your honourable detriments.'_

 _'_ _Once you wake up, we'll tell you everything we've learned about the Vault and your connection to it,' Maya added. 'Later.'_

 _I'm linked to the Vault!? What?! I thought I was only trying to find it! How am I 'connected', exactly? I guess that data I gave them really spurred them on to go look for it. Not for the loot, but to destroy whatever beast lurks inside._

 _Another blink and now Zed is working on me. He's administering more drugs, and working into my bare flesh. Suddenly, I can feel my body shaking, but it's not out of my own will. Zed suddenly becomes very worried, that much I could tell even though he's wearing a surgeon's mask._

 _Am I…having a seizure?!_

 _Internally, I yell "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" but the words that I could hear come out were different entirely._

 _'_ _We don't do it your way!' That's what I can hear shriek out of my voice box. 'No, wait…escape…must get out…no…no…!' It sounds loud but I know I'm just mumbling._

 _'_ _Calm down, son,' Zed consoles, although he knew that the words being uttered from my voice box aren't my own. With another injection of some drug, I can feel my voice box freezing up again._

 _What the hell was that?_

 _I lose consciousness once more, and when it finally came back to me, I can see…_

 _…_ _Gaige. She's standing at the bottom of my bed._

 _'_ _Zed? Can I…sit next to him?' The girl wonders. Zed nods._

 _'_ _I'm done for today,' the doctor assures. I notice that it was indeed dark out. 'Just be careful, OK?' She nods, and pulls up a chair on my right. There's this soft feeling on my right hand, which I can surmise to be Gaige rubbing her fingers up and down._

 _It's nice._

 _'_ _You're strong, Matt. you're getting through this, no matter what.'_

 _I know, Gaige._

 _'_ _I know we haven't necessarily known each other for so long, but it feels like we've been friends for a decade.'_

 _That feeling is reciprocated. You can read me like a book._

 _'_ _I have no idea if you can hear this, but I followed what you said. I listened. I've remained calm, strong and true to myself, Matt. I owe you for opening my eyes.'_

 _That thought has always been there in your mind, Gaige. You just didn't know it. But I did._

 _'_ _Your eyes…' That's my voice, but I didn't say that. '…they twinkle…it's beautiful.'_

 _'_ _Huh?' Gaige is shocked upon hearing me speak._

 _'_ _Can you…hear…me, Matt?' I can feel her clutching my hand in astonishment. Oh no. I'm mumbling again._

 _'_ _Can…you…see the stars…shine…? Wait…Gaige…listen…beauty...'_

 _'_ _Matt! What are you trying to say?'_

 _I'm trying to outline my faith in you! It's like my brain is auto-correcting itself!_

 _'_ _Don't leave yet…you're needed…I need you…' Gaige blushes at that, which I suppose is cute. I'm not sure whether to laugh or scream._

 _I can feel the blackness taking me over again. Other voices are flooding in like static, and I can't hear too much of the real world. But I can hear one thing._

 _'_ _I love you, Matt.' That was Gaige. Undoubtedly so. However, is that my own imagination or real? It had to be real. 'I love you so much.'_

 _One more blink and Gaige was gone and Aurora was in her place._

 _'_ _I love you, Matty.' She was saying the same thing. What? Is that how they both feel about me? 'I have for a long time.'_

 _But I don't know which one I have feelings for!_

 _Another blink and back to Gaige, lying on my chest._

 _'_ _You're my hero, Matt. You saved me.'_

 _I could see a bullet firing towards my sister. These visions were getting more severe. Flashes of blowtorches and knives lay before me. I sit there helpless, having no idea what to do._

 _'_ _I love you, Matt.' Gaige snaps me out of it somewhat. Now blackness returns._

* * *

 **Wow, that was the shortest chapter I've ever written. I'll try to make some of these chapters longer though.**

 **Also, yes, I'm a terrible romance writer. It's mostly only there to push forward Matt's motivations and keep him grounded.**

 **By the way, I included Matt's perspective because I kinda wanted to add variety and I also thought it was one only ways to show what he was seeing while in his coma. Yeah, I could've made it from some other Vault Hunter's perspective but I already did that with Gaige last chapter and honestly, they wouldn't be doing much during the time in which he was comatose. (Which was why I had time-jumps in the previous chapter.)**

 **You might also think that his mumblings were nonsense. They weren't. You'll find out some of the gravity they hold later on. (Like,** ** _way_** **later on.)**


	13. Grit

**Whatever, I'm still gonna keep writing this. It sounds kinda sad that I haven't got one review yet, but to be honest, I don't mind. You don't have to, and I'm guessing people are just waiting for the first person to kick it off.**

 **Anyways, Matt has come back to the earthly realm, and is no longer clinging to the mortal coil with only a few strings. Would it be pointless to say kinda cringy romance-angst is up ahead? Yep…**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirteen: Grit**

* * *

Matt's eyes fluttered. He struggled to return to the land of the living. Once he did, he blinked a few more times to adapt to the light. The first thing he felt was dehydration.

Surveying his surroundings, Matt spotted Gaige sleeping over his chest, leaning from her chair. He blushed upon recollection of her reveal of her feelings towards him. The Anomaly also saw Aurora sitting in another chair, leaning on the Portable Clinic machine, asleep.

For a moment, he just looked up at the ceiling, astounded he was still alive. Matt noticed that he could finally feel his legs again, and move them. Although, they were a little stiff, which was not unanticipated.

Matt tapped Gaige's head to wake her. He then smoothly stroked her hair. She looked up.

'Bwuh?' Her tiredness was clear, but it disappeared immediately commencing her realisation of her surroundings.

'Hey there, sleepyhead,' he teased. 'You have quite the bedhead, I must say.'

'Matt! You're…you're OK!' She almost suffocated him with a tight hug, which caused searing pain.

'Gaige! I appreciate the hug, but –' The girl quickly pried herself off of him and went red.

'Sorry! I forgot you're still recuperating!' She apologised fretfully.

'You're cute when you worry,' Matt noted, making her blush even more. He pulled her back into the hug. She accepted it, resting her head on his chest.

'I'm really glad you're alive,' the Mechromancer euphorically. She definitely seemed elated.

'I'm just surprised I _am_ , to be honest,' Matt responded, stroking her hair.

'I was scared at first,' Gaige said. 'But you're strong…you know, I feel like we met a long time ago.'

'I know, Gaige.' She looked up at him inquisitively. 'I heard you.'

'R-really?' Gaige couldn't quite believe it somehow. She suddenly looked very crestfallen. 'You…you were talking nonsense in your coma…I couldn't understand what you were saying.'

'I heard all that too. I had no control over that.'

'You…' She struggled to verbalise her thoughts on it. 'You said…you said I was beautiful.'

'Truth be told, I have no idea if what I said were just insane mumblings, or were true. I'm more inclined to believe the latter.'

Gaige looked up and away from him with burning passion. She subconsciously began leaning in towards him, and all the signs were telling Matt not to stop her or pull away. Their lips were within a few millimetres when they both heard soft yawning nearby. They turned to see Aurora beginning to wake up, wiping her drool from her mouth. Instinctively, the Mechromancer pulled back, hiding how her face looked as red as a tomato.

'Morning, 'Ora,' Matt greeted. The voice immediately snapped Aurora out of her tiredness, the welcoming tone bringing an instantaneous smile to her face.

'Matty!' She beamed, running over to him blissfully. It was very obvious that she had been losing sleep recently, going by the huge bags over her eyes. The very sight of him caused her day to become brighter than the Sun. She threw her arms around him, resulting in Gaige having to move awkwardly out of the way.

He didn't miss how she'd scratched out the Gemini logo on her breastplate.

'Ease up,' Matt reassured her. 'I'm OK.'

Zed walked into the room, looking in shock at Matt.

'I just came to get some more drugs,' he claimed. 'I didn't realise you'd come round at all.'

'Just woke up, actually. I've still got some injuries that're healing over.' Doctor Zed looked at him in pure disbelief and confusion.

'Look, son,' he addressed. 'I have no idea how you're talking to me right now. Some of the wounds you sustained were incredibly severe. Strictly speaking, you should not be _alive_. I don't know how you managed to wake up without any permanent lesions.'

'Maya theorized it was something to do with my "connection to Sirens"?' The Vault Hunter questioned, recalling the tidbits he'd seen and heard while comatose.

'You heard that?' Gaige compounded, not realising that everything said around him he could've heard. She made sure that no one saw her brief blushing.

'Yes. You healed much faster than you should have.' Zed seemed to reiterating what he had said earlier.

'How long until I can get up?' The Anomaly wondered.

'There're crutches over there, but I _highly_ discourage you from walking around. However, it's your decision,' the doctor recommended. Matt glanced over to where he was pointing, and saw the two crutches resting on the wall. He nodded, and told him that he'd certainly try to get on his feet. Zed moved the crutches to near his bed.

'I've actually got to go get some stuff from the black market, now that I remember,' he recollected. The man went off out the door, muttering to himself.

'Zed wasn't too certain you'd make it,' Gaige said.

'I…I was so worried,' Aurora told him, crying in his arms. She shuddered every so often. 'I saw all of your injuries…they were so sickening and horrible…' Matt grabbed her shoulders to talk some sense into her. He knew not to use a nickname when being seriousness.

'Aurora. I'm OK. I'd prefer it to know if _you_ were OK.'

She looked at him, staring for a few moments in awe that he cared more about how she was despite how it was Matt who'd been hospitalised.

Right in front of Gaige, and with complete confidence, Aurora leant forwards and kissed him straight on the mouth. Matt went completely red, but Aurora ceased the kiss before he could pull away.

'Of course I'm OK, Matty,' she assured him, a dreamlike smile on her face. Gaige was silently steaming with jealousy. 'But you _would_ care even though it's you in the hospital bed. That's why I fell in love with you.'

'Er…um…' he stammered. Before he could fully figure out how to respond, Gaige got up. Her legs were shivering, struggling to maintain her balance as they fell in on each other. Tears began forming in her eyes, and she ran off, making loud sobbing sounds.

'Gaige!' Matt called out to her, but she was already gone. Aurora looked up at her.

'I knew she liked you,' she noted. 'Just like I like you.' Matt threw an angry look at her, which immediately made her look remorseful. He threw off the sheets and attempted to walk. Matt instantly dropped to the ground, prompting Aurora to attempt to help him up. He immediately shook off her arms, grabbed the crutches, and moved as fast as he could out the door.

Matt looked all around for Gaige, only stopping to drink some water. She wasn't in her house; the place was completely silent. He didn't have time to welcome himself back to the other Vault Hunters, citing to himself that it wasn't the right time. The crutches may have impaired his movement, but not his hearing. He heard the sound of crying.

Following it, he found the poor Mechromancer out near Scooter's garage. She was sitting by the wall ahead of the steps, weeping into her hands. The sound broke his heart, or very nearly did.

'Gaige!' He called, and she looked up at him. Her cheeks were puffy and red, evidence of her sobbing. She sniffed, but stopped crying.

'Matt…' she stuttered. 'I'm sorry…I'm not usually like this.'

'It was over Aurora, wasn't it?' He asked, and she stared at him.

'Do you… _like_ …her?' She writhed to ask. Matt was taken aback.

'No…we're just best friends.'

'You let her kiss you. _'_ He was taken entirely aback by this comment.

'No I didn't!' The Anomaly protested. 'I could barely move…she stole that kiss.' She seemed slightly happier once he told her that.

'Do you like… _me?'_ Gaige asked anxiously. Matt was not surprised she asked this, if what he heard while in his coma was anything to go by. But he fell silent anyway and instead found himself sitting on the ground beside her. His crutches were piled in front of him.

Gaige instantly hated herself for asking the question. It was so forward, especially since it had been moments since he'd just woken up.

'I'm sorry it's just…' the words couldn't quite come out. '…I…' She looked at him, tears welling up.

Matt cupped her face with his hands, and pulled her in. He pressed his lips against hers, stealing her voice.

'Does that answer your question?' He replied. The young girl's tears evaporated and were replaced with a jubilant smile.

'I love you, Matt,' she announced happily, leaning on his shoulder.

'I know,' Matt guaranteed. 'I love you too.'

'C'mon,' she prompted, getting up. 'You need to talk to the others about the Vault.'

The anomalous Vault Hunter could not quite hide his excitement in that statement. They had learned a few things as of late, so he definitely needed to play catch-up. Gaige aided him to his feet, grabbing his crutches and placing them in his arms. Matt thanked her, and was quickly able to walk. They were soon on their way to Crimson Raider HQ.

It still shocked him that walking was even an option. He remembered the sickening crack of his spine as it shattered under the rubble. The young man had only just made his way of the debris when he heard it.

There had been a long crawl towards the Catch-A-Ride. It was extremely painful, and it had only been his sheer will power that had kept him going. Once he had made it, Matt recalled how difficult he found it to drive, given that he could not actually use his legs at the time, and instead opted for a stick to move the pedals.

It had been him who'd fast-travelled into Sanctuary while Caine was attacking. Matt was initially still crawling, but once he saw Caine there, he could no longer feel any pain and regained use of all limbs. That had been his powers, he surmised, although not entirely sure how his abilities could even do that to begin with.

The pain he had suffered would never be forgotten. The flesh being sliced like a hot knife through butter, blood leaking out. His bones being smashed like a hammer through glass, some invisible force keeping him on the ground. That was unbearable, indescribable, traumatic, but not once had Matt considered that the actions he took weren't worth it.

While the agony he experienced would haunt him forever, the ends justified the means. Even if his weakness was evident.

At least he made a good entrance before he passed out.

Or so he thought. It was likely everyone else was too focussed on the fact that he:

 _a)_ Was alive

 _b)_ Was protecting them

 _c)_ Had pulled himself out of the rubble, and

 _d)_ Was incredibly injured.

Not that their opinions on the matter were the height of his problems. Instead, the Vault was. Namely, what he had to do with it. Matt hated nothing more than being in the dark, and this time his knowledge was far behind his Vault Hunter friends. So he was excited to find out.

Normally, Gaige would've pulled him emphatically towards HQ, but since his crutches acted as a physical barrier, that was avoided. Although she was still eloquent, skipping exultantly beside him and stopped every now and then, so that Matt could keep up with her.

Her demeanour honestly did not surprise him in the slightest.

They walked through HQ, eyeing Tannis as she looked inquisitively at Matt's presence. She spoke into her ECHO recorder again, but this time changing the subject.

'From what I can observe,' the mad scientist perceived, 'the Vault Hunter Matt Rye has survived his comatose state, further leading my study that he may have some kind of affinity to avoid death. He rescued Sanctuary from the turmoil brought upon from his former peers, while also appearing massively lacerated – as to whether this is luck or some kind of outlying factor is yet to be determined.

'As it seems, Matt Rye earns his title as Anomaly given that he survived a nigh-nuclear bomb explosion and crawled his way out of the debris left behind, and _then_ proceeded to grind his supposed arch enemy into a pulp before finally showing signs of over-exertion.

'Note to self: run experiments on Matt's DNA (possibly hair strands or blood from Doctor Zed) to test for any potential factors that could be put to use.'

'Tannis! He's right here!' Gaige finally interrupted, deeming that least sentence unnecessary for the situation. Tannis grumbled and returned to her original subject about the possibility of a cure for slag exposure in growing embryos.

'Whatever,' Matt dismissed, carefully manoeuvring his way up the stairs. Gaige helped him on the way, scowling at the scientist's outspokenness.

The upstairs area looked no different to what it had been when he last conscious. It was only the rest of Sanctuary that was still undergoing minor repairs. This particular location he had grown to love, more so than his own house. Perhaps because every single time he'd been here, a new revelation was experienced – even if it _was_ slight.

Gaige looked at him with a bright smile, perhaps blindingly so. Matt had never really been one to express his emotions too much, but he still smiled back.

Aurora would have to wait. The Vault mattered more, and so did his mission.

All of the Vault Hunters stared at him shockingly, not aware that he had even awoken. Aurora was not present.

Matt's uncomfortableness about the attention brought upon some kind of dullness, forcing a dumbfounded look on his face.

'Why are you all staring at me like I just went to Hell and back?' He asked stupidly, before pausing with an annoyed look at himself, and correcting himself. 'Oh…right.'

'Did you just wake up?' Maya was the first to ask. She looked sympathetically at his crutches.

'A couple minutes ago, yeah,' Matt confirmed.

'And _how_ exactly did you do that?'

'Weren't you the one to give an explanation about Sirens to Doctor Zed about it?' Matt reminded her. The Siren was evidently thrown aback by this.

'You…you heard that?'

'I heard mostly everything.' Matt gave a nod to Axton, who respectfully returned it.

'I'm impressed, killer,' Lilith commented. 'Although with you I'm usually impressed. I don't think I will quite understand the kind of tenacity it takes to heave your battered body out of tonnes of wreckage.'

'Yeah, amigo, I can't imagine the amount of pain that it must've caused you,' Mordecai added. Matt suddenly went dark.

'No, you can't,' he agreed, before immediately switching back to a more upbeat appearance. 'But it was worth it!'

'You're damn right it was,' Gaige concurred.

'Couldn't have put it better myself,' Axton said, walking over to him and extending a hand. 'For all the things I've said to you.'

'Thanks Ax,' Matt acknowledged, accepting the handshake. Axton smiled wholeheartedly at the use of the nickname.

'Listen, slab,' Brick addressed him, raising slight frustration in Matt's thoughts given that he wasn't a slab nor a bandit. 'The sacrifice you made isn't something just anyone would have the guts to do. What it really takes to be a heroic person is to lack selfishness. You have proved you are not selfish, slab.'

'I'm not a hero,' he downheartedly disagreed. 'I'm just…someone else.'

'You're not just someone else, Matt,' Gaige reassured him. 'You're a good person.'

 _Namely, you're my boyfriend,_ she thought, although the Mechromancer lacked the courage to say that out loud.

'Thanks, Gaige,' he accepted, before immediately changing the subject to something more pressing. 'Anyways, the Vault. Tell me everything.'

They dutifully obliged, and Lilith was the one to explain.

'Thanks to the combined data of yours and Aurora's Vault Instinct data, we've been able to pinpoint the general area of the Vault. The only problem is that it's not always there. The Vault appears to have some ability to travel in and out of the physical plane, to somewhere more…metaphysical.'

'So it's like Brigadoon?' Matt enquired, to which she nodded.

'We haven't detected the Vault before, because it didn't show up on any data. But recently, its link to the metaphysical plane has been waning. It's to do with your connection to it.

'You see, after the Genisys Project, you gained pseudo-Siren connections. Not only do you have a connection to me and Maya, for example, but this Vault that you're looking for: you gained a link to that, too.'

'That would explain how I was able to manipulate Maya's Phaselock,' Matt mused, to which Lilith and Maya nodded. Lilith continued.

'Matt, you see, the Vault has remained in the metaphysical plane because of you. While before you gained the latter attachment, the Vault opened periodically. _You_ have been subconsciously keeping it closed. _You_ are keeping it trapped in another dimension and you aren't even aware of it.

'You don't even have to be conscious yourself for your Siren ability to operate. Even now, your mind is keeping the Vault closed. However, there's an issue. After you "died"' – she used air quotes to emphasise their train of thought at the time – 'we noticed that the Vault started to spend more time in this dimension than the next. We assumed it was because your death had broken the chain: the Vault was no longer being maintained in its home domain by yourself, therefore, the Vault was opening.'

'I see,' Matt nodded, confirming that he understood. 'I'm still alive, but the Vault is still opening.'

'Exactly. And we have no idea why. Although, we _are_ certain it's a problem. Once someone is able to come into contact with the Vault properly, it will open completely. Meaning that if Caine can consolidate his presence in the Vault for long enough, he can bring into this realm permanently.'

'The Vaults have always had an outspoken connection to Sirens,' Maya added. 'It's treating like you _are_ one.'

'Tannis suspects that the Vault may not open to everyone,' Axton said. 'But she isn't certain. There's no real evidence. Caine may not be able to find the Vault as of yet, but there's also no telling whether or not it'll actually open for him. For all we know, it may only open for you.'

Abruptly, Matt had flashes of the Vault itself, while it would often disappear and then reappear. In a blink of an eye, Matt found himself within, noticing the Vault door far off in the distance. There was a large pathway leading along, with what appeared to be…Eridian sculptures and artefacts, along the side. He was on the far end. The Vault door seemed to have some kind of access panel beside, made out of Eridium energy.

He snapped back to reality.

'Matt…? Hello…?' Gaige called, waving her hand in front of his face.

'Did you just…have a vision?' Lilith immediately guessed. He nodded.

'How'd you know that?'

'Happens to all Sirens.' Matt assumed that Lilith was now just going to treat him as a Siren now, even though he wasn't necessarily one himself.

'I saw inside the Vault…I think…I think it has some kind of scanner that requires some sort of input in order for the Vault to open.'

'That's not abnormal,' Maya told him. 'In the past, Vaults have needed Eridian or Siren-based energy to open them.'

'You just need enough power,' he muttered, clenching his fist. His arm crackled with red and black energy, feeling a buzz reaching every corner of his nerves, and travelling along his veins. Slowly, he eased the lightning until it stopped fizzing.

Only then did Matt notice the excessive scars and bruises present all over his palm, leading up to his heavily disfigured fingers. He wondered how he failed to notice them before. He was still wearing his blue padded shirt, which had further padding leading down to his wrist. There were extensive mutilations and scratches along his arms, leaving purple marks around his cuts, and dark scarring around his veins. Aware of his condition even more, Matt did not dare to look at his chest or indeed his back. Knowingly, that was where most of his marks were since that was where his spine was shattered.

Gaige saw them, and made a mental note to try and talk to him about it. They were definitely shocking, but the Mechromancer knew she had to pay attention to the task at hand.

'Only time will provide the answer,' Matt said randomly. The sagacious tone was clear, and it made him sound like he had seen this many times before. 'The future is a veiled path. It can go in innumerable directions, spanning infinite possibilities, but you will never know the one it takes prior to the incidence. The road leading to new events is forked, and that is the nature of it. We are all wanderers in the 3rd Dimension, but the Vault exists in a higher domain, and we will only understand it once we are wise beyond our time.'

The speech had made him sound centuries old, with newfound experience that the old Matt would lack. Now, he had it in bounds.

'Wow, Matt,' Lilith observed, 'I've never heard you sound so… astute.'

'Very wise, compañero!' Sal admired.

'That makes me want to take on this Vault even more,' Gaige excitedly declared.

'The Vault will open / We'll kill the monster within / Another one down,' Zer0 commented, displaying an "XD" sign on his visor.

Aurora suddenly walked up the stairs, freezing upon seeing Matt. It appeared the Vault Hunter had just recognised her forwardness, and how her elatedness had gotten the better of her. She looked quite guilty for the actions she had recently took, given that her feelings for Matt were not reciprocated.

'Erm, so I just spoke to my parents and…' she began, not sure how to end that sentence while under the burning look of Matt. 'Caine's getting closer to the Vault. Ever since…Matt…beat him, apparently he's been relentlessly searching, going as far as to search for anomalous reports across the continent.'

'Thanks for the heads-up, Aurora,' Brick finally accepted, breaking the silence.

'Uh, yeah,' Matt half-heartedly thanked. Aurora fluttered her eyes at him, incredibly nervous. 'I'll have to talk to them later.'

'Nuh-uh,' Gaige disagreed. 'You'll need a little rest before you can properly be out and about.' Matt sighed.

'Fine. But after I'm completely healed, I'm going after Caine.'

'Not on your own, amigo,' Mordecai replied. He nodded in response.

'I'll think of something later.'

He paused.

'Is my house still on the table?' Everyone hesitated.

'Aurora's not there anymore. She's been sharing with Maya. Too many painful memories,' Lilith explained.

'I…I think I'll stay with Maya,' Aurora concluded, but not entirely certain of the decision.

'OK, what the hell's going on between you two?' Axton demanded, throwing accusing glares at Matt and Aurora. Matt scratched the back of his neck nervously, while Aurora stared down at the ground, fidgeting her fingers and picking at her nails.

'Aurora…has _romantic_ feelings for me…' Matt admitted, with a solemn sound in his voice. There was no sense of defiance about Aurora anymore.

* * *

 ** _Great_** **ending to the chapter, I think. To be honest, I was writing this, and I realised it got far too long, so I had to find some cut-off point between this chapter and the next. Hopefully it wasn't too bad, but I can't tell since it's hard to find problems in your own work due to your own naturally subjective perspective.**

 **And, uh, yeah, the Vault is inspired somewhat by Brigadoon (look it up, the idea for the way the Vault opens comes from it) but the entire thing doesn't revolve around it, it's just a small inspiration. Yeah, the Vault switches between two dimensions: this one and some otherworldly domain. Matt's like a link between them, but think of it like the link is rusting but the all the energy is moving into our designated part of it. Or like in a tug of war match but one side has a bodybuilder and the other a weaker but still muscly man, so it's being slowly edged to one side. A bit like that. Time will reveal _how_ exactly they will open it.**

 **Oh, and yes, Matt's scars are very graphic. I can almost make myself feel sick imaging them.**


	14. Inconceivable

**Jesus, this is getting long. I should probably take a break at some point, but I know where this story is going so I don't want to stop writing. It's quite enjoyable to write this – to have the power to mould the story in any way is truly magnificent.**

 **Also, I believe this is the first chapter to be named after one of Salvador's skills. It's a much more tame and less uncouth one, so that's great. And it fits for what goes on in the chapter as well.**

 **Yippee, more romance that I am not great at writing…but what the hell, why not...?**

* * *

 **Chapter Fourteen: Inconceivable**

* * *

Aurora seemed defeated.

'Clearly, the feeling doesn't go both ways,' she finished, immediately brought to the brink of tears. 'He prefers Gaige. That I can see.'

There was silence throughout the room. Matt didn't move to deny any of the things she just said, nor did Gaige deny the latter. She knew that it would get out eventually, but moments after the relationship was just established seemed a bit fast.

Axton instantly felt remorse for asking, realising that the enquiry had made him sound like a bit of a jerk.

'You guys need to get over that,' Maya advised.

'Your friendship is stronger than this,' Lilith added.

'Such disharmony / True friendship is so precious / Don't throw it away,' Zer0 agreed.

'C'mon, they're right,' Gaige added. 'I'd hate to be the reason behind the end of your friendship.'

'You aren't,' Aurora and Matt assured in unison.

Gaige did not seem entirely convinced.

'After you came back, Matt, I…was overwhelmed with emotions. So, I got…careless.'

'It's OK if you didn't mean–'

'I still meant to kiss you,' she interrupted, having easily predicted how that sentence was going to finish. 'My feelings have been there for years. When you were kidnapped, there was this…hole left in me. So it broke my heart when you left. When we made up, I thought we had a chance. But you kept going for Gaige. A girl you met a few days prior to reuniting with me, versus the young woman you've known for years. I didn't understand. I still don't.'

'I'm sorry Aurora,' Matt apologised. 'I just never got past seeing you as my best friend.'

'It's not your fault.'

'We can still be best friends. Even if you do have feelings for me.'

'I don't know. You think so?'

'Of course! I'll try and spend some more time with you, as a friend.' Aurora seemed so desperate at this point to cleave together their now fragmenting friendship that she was willing to accept it. She reluctantly went for a hug around him, before letting go.

'T-Thanks…' The Revolverslinger thanked. 'Um, I guess I'll start moving some of my things back into your house so I can take care of you.'

'Are you sure?' Matt carefully wondered. She nodded adamantly, before strolling away with a more pleased appearance beside her as she left.

'Well that was…easy,' Maya remarked.

'I am _so_ proud of you for that,' Gaige added, giving him a soft kiss on his cheek. Everyone stared as the gears in their brain started turning.

'Oh…! So when Aurora said that you kept going for Gaige…' Axton observed, 'she _literally meant_ you were going after Gaige.'

'Early stages,' Matt replied freely, not certain if he should be comfortable with being so intimate with Gaige following Aurora opening up to him so much.

'Lucky guy,' Axton murmured, almost ashamed of the comment.

'Lucky _girl,_ ' Lilith corrected. Gaige blushed slightly.

'I'll be in my home if anyone needs me,' Matt finally resolved. Gaige went to his side again, seeing if she could help him along. He stopped her. 'Gaige. I'm _fine._ Stay here and try to manage battle strategies with everyone. I can get a hold of Caine, but I need _you_ to come up with a strategy in case _mine_ fails. Caine's not as reckless as he seemed.'

'You entrusting _me_ with something so important?' She did not seem too confident with that order.

'Of course! You're really smart, so you shouldn't have a problem!' Matt confirmed, before turning around and carefully placing the tips of his crutches on the stairs. Gaige stood there, trying to process what he just said.

 _Matt just called me intelligent…!_ She marvelled. _Wait, why is that so inspiring?_

Her brainwaves shifted to Matt's scars, cuts and bruises that adorned his body. The scarred tissue was evident, the damage sickening to look at. Even commencing Matt's return, Gaige had not really spared some thoughts to what her supposed lover had been through. Plainly, it was horrifying. He had been through all of that, just to save them.

 _Those injuries…they must have been so excruciating._

The worst of them all: his spine.

Gaige could not possibly imagine the feeling of your spine snapping and then shattering, and the following _lack_ of feeling anything afterwards. She had never experienced anything that a few hypos couldn't clear up. Matt's wounds were things that not even _super-_ hypos could even have much of an effect on.

 _What kind of drive can one person have to lead to them hoisting themselves out of a hundred-tonne wreckage (somehow) and then crawl almost all the way back? The_ _agony_ _and throbbing pain…how is Matt even still sane after that? I never gave it too much consideration before…_

Now, he had those blemishes as signs of the torment he'd experienced. Torture that she had failed to save him from. Instead, she had spent her time mourning his apparent death while he was subjected to literal Hell.

Although, Gaige knew she couldn't think like that. Matt would not want her to, even if the sympathy exploding into guilt was there. She just didn't know what it was truly like to have been him in that situation.

 _That physical trauma…I think that's burnt into my memory forever._

'Amiga…?' Mordecai called out, but it apparently fell upon deaf ears. The girl appeared to be spacing out for some reason unknown to them.

'You alright, slab?' Brick asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She was immediately yanked out of her thoughts and stared at them.

'S-sorry, just thinking,' Gaige told them, unsure of herself.

'You're thinking about Matt's scars, aren't you?' Maya perceptively conjectured. Flinching, Gaige briefly threw her a defensive glare, before accepting defeat and nodding.

'I saw those too, cúmbila,' Salvador said. 'I've had some scrapes myself, but… _sus cicatrices son peores.'_ ( **A/N: "** **His** **scars** **are** **worse** **." Sal's of Spanish descent, remember?)**

Everyone nodded quite vehemently to that statement, apart from Gaige, who remained mostly silent.

'Has he actually said anything about what happened?' Axton asked.

'Come to think of it, no, not really,' Brick answered, toning down the loudness in his voice.

'It must have been like a living hell,' Mordecai darkly presumed.

'A hell on Earth, yes / He has the marks to prove it / But now he is back,' Zer0 harmonised.

'Terrible that someone as kind as him had to experience that,' Lilith stated compassionately.

'S-Stop t-talking about it,' Gaige stammered.

'Oh, right, sorry, Gaige,' Lilith apologised, noticing the distraught look on her face.

* * *

Matt lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. This was something he seemed to do a lot recently, whenever he had the opportunity.

Truth be told, the Anomaly had no idea how he was still alive. The hundred-tonne remains of the Gulag should have crushed his skull and killed him almost instantly commencing the detonation of the bomb. His luck could not have been the reason. Maybe Matt's powers really did save his life.

However, he had been in life-threatening situations countless times before – more so when he had his powers as opposed to when not. In those circumstances, it was Matt's quick-thinking that got him out of it, not his powers. Those had not provided any assistance.

His powers weren't everything. Despite being "The Anomaly" Matt had skill besides slowing time. Well-versed in martial arts, he could quite easily defend himself while his powers were in a cooldown state or had been overused. And his gun proficiency even impressed Duke while they fought, but the man always had the upper hand in that category.

Not that that surprised him in the slightest.

Vaus also enjoyed how he could copy his whirlwind powers (although not to the same level or intensity), but that was _with_ his abilities – most of the time he just held out until he could pull one over on Arcturus. Arguably, Arcturus Vaus was the most deadly of the Vault Hunters, but it was a tough contest.

Violet's light beams were formidable, but she wasn't the brightest of the bunch, nor the cream of the crop, and likewise did not know the more obscure ways to use her powers. She wasn't even certain how she could turn invisible. Not to mention firing light beams quickly in succession was very difficult and took a lot of energy out of her.

Duke Minoosh was a _very_ close third, given that if he was able to aim properly, the guy could get rapid headshots without missing. Matt usually found himself having to quickly dispatch or distract him, and offset his aim.

Dan had a powerful ability, but power did not lead deadliness. Deadliness was directly affected by how easily he could kill someone. His holographic projections were scarcely used but could be physical or intangible. The more powerful or complex the hologram he was making, the harder it was to maintain it. Unfortunately, for him anyway, Dan's projections made him very predictable. He nearly always started a fight by either a direct digital attack to the face, or by means of deception.

By deception, he meant something similar to Zer0's ability. More often than not, he didn't throw a hologram of himself, but usually someone else. He liked to confuse enemies with multiple copies of his teammates, or even his opponent's teammates. Despite knowing this was predictable, Dan still did it – mainly because he had no other battle strategy.

As for Caine, there was no contest that he was the most dangerous and powerful, but not the deadliest; despite what he would tell everyone. With ability such as his – to increase the air pressure in a certain area, causing a concussive explosion of air – the man was not to be trifled with. (Unless you're Matt Rye, of course.)

His explosions never made fires either, which Caine always supposed reduced his self-destructive capabilities by around 23.2 percent.

Matt and Aurora were the top of the league while they worked for Gemini, but Matt was substantially weaker with his powers during the short period where he had them and was still under their employ. Throughout the years where the Anomaly was non-anomalous, he was barely on par with Duke, as he relied a little more on his own skills in combat rather than actual superpowers.

And Matt _definitely_ acknowledged them to be superpowers. Sirens were essentially superhuman, and since the Vault Hunter was basically one – if Sirens were male – one could treat his abnormal proficiencies in the same fashion.

Although, the young man gave himself the title of a super _hero_. That just seemed immature and wholly inaccurate.

'Matty? You're muttering,' called someone. He looked down at Aurora, who was standing there with a glass of water and a small slice of skag steak on a ceramic plate.

'Oh, hey 'Ora,' he greeted. Matt knew he needed to be fluent with his former teammates' powers and weaknesses for whenever he might take them on again. 'Wait, is that skag meat?' He sat up animatedly.

'You betcha! Eat up!' She placed the glass of water by his desk and the plate just beside it.

'Thanks, 'Ora!' Matt took a large expressive gulp of the invitingly cold water. Aurora bent over and gave him a minor hug and smiled warmly.

'What are friends for?' She sat down on the bed, watching him eat. She tended to his legs. 'Do these hurt at all?' She started massaging them while Matt ate.

''Ora, you don't have to –'

'Answer the question, Matty,' Aurora demanded firmly.

'It is a little sore but –'

'Oh my God, you poor thing!' She began smoothly massaging his ankle to ease the pain, taking off his right shoe and sock.

'It seems more like scarred tissue since it is more sensitive than –'

'Your muscle tissue's been scarred? I didn't realise the after-effects of your injuries!' The young woman put some ice on his shin and under the leg, causing Matt to wince at the sudden drastic change in temperature.

'There may be some scratches all over, and –'

'HOW MANY SCARS DO YOU _HAVE_ , MATT?' The female Vault Hunter bellowed in disbelief, having pulled up his trouser leg to reveal dozens of blemishes all across his skin. Most appeared to have been marks where his flesh had been scraped and slashed into, while ones that were more serious were surrounded by dark purple-brown bruising. Some areas had pale pink blotches, a sign of wounds having healed over but threatened to bleed profusely if they were even slightly scraped off. She ran her fingers along these pink areas, and Matt shuddered in sensitivity.

'Don't scrape them so much or –'

'I'm sorry! I just got interested and –'

'AURORA WILL YOU LET ME FUCKING SPEAK?!' Matt roared, successfully catching her attention and shutting her up. After realising how she would not respond, he continued, putting away the finished plate on his desk. ' _Thank you._ Anyway, you don't need to worry so much about me, you know. Nowadays, it's all you seem to do. I know that I went through a lot, but I'm back. Right now that's all that matters.'

'Matty…' She affectionately called, uncertain how she would go about maintaining her sentence. '…You haven't really said anything about what happened…I know it must've been traumatising but…' Matt grabbed both her hands and held them together in his.

' _Aurora._ I'm _fine._ '

'It's just…if you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm here.'

'I know, 'Ora. That's why we're best friends.'

'I love you, Matt… _as a friend.'_ He sniggered at the emphasis on the last clause.

'As best friends.' She nodded, and picked up the plate and drink as Matt finished quaffing down the freezing water. The Revolverslinger gave him one final hug before ordering him to rest for a few hours and leaving.

* * *

 _In some kind of nightmare world, Matt stood before Caine and the door to the Vault. The Anomaly's Pandoran Vault Hunter friends stood behind him. He flinched as the Explosions Master leant his hand against the scanner._

 _Caine frowned. The Vault door to the pseudo-Brigadoon would not open._

 _'_ _I guess that Tannis scientist was right,' he remarked, turning to Matt. 'It'll only open for you. You need to put enough energy in.'_

 _'_ _No, Caine,' he firmly told him._

 _'_ _Matt, we just have to let ends meet here,' Gaige advised behind him. Aurora nodded to that, but remained silent._

 _'_ _Yeah we can decide what to do with Caine once we take down this Vault, kid,' Maya added._

 _'_ _Unless you want me to kill your girlfriend,' Caine threatened, pointing his hand at Gaige and creating small air pockets around his palm and exploding them as an example._

 _'_ _Try it and I liquefy you,' Lilith countered._

 _'_ _Not as if you'd be able to do it fast enough, bitch,' the man re-joined. Matt felt like warning him about his language, but it just seemed irrelevant at this point. Caine got pissed easily anyway._

 _Sighing, the Anomalous Hunter placed his hand on the scanner, creating a large portal to form in the Vault door. Eventually, a gateway was created inside, revealing the inside._

 _The pathway was stony and floated but short, and extended out into a large platform. The platform possessed Eridian statues similar to that inside the Vault of the Warrior. However, these were not crying lava. Outside the platform were simple floating structures of stone, and beyond that was an expanding void of purple Eridian energy._

 _Matt would have focussed more on this if the situation was not so hazy and unclear._

 _Dropping out of nowhere was a dark silhouette on the platform. He could not see what the Vault Monster was, or what it did._

 _However, they still went in to fight._

 _The mysterious Vault Guardian began attacking them, wiping the floor with them. The colossal creature picked up Salvador and literally ate him, making a comical gulping sound. It also smacked Maya and Axton into a statue, which then collapsed on them, crushing them. Matt tried to scream, but no words would come out._

 _Lilith lasted much longer, firing Phaseblasts which did some kind of damage to the Monster. It roared, but not like the Warrior, but more distinctly…human. As it did so, it managed to grab her with its arms and tore her into two pieces. She screamed in pain._

 _Matt kept Gaige back with stern concern, knowing she stood no chance against the beast following the death of her friends._

 _More of their friends were dispatched – Brick and Aurora were thrown off the platform, Zer0's limbs were bitten off, Mordecai's head was decapitated and Deathtrap exploded._

 _Caine and Matt did not seem to have too much problem against the Vault Monster however, easily reacting to the beast's fast movements – whatever it was – and responding accordingly. It took serious damage as they used their abilities to destroy it._

 _The monster fell, as Gaige looked on._

 _Matt ran over to her, trying to console her over the demise of her friends. While he did this, Caine got more interested in the artefact that rose out of the ground from the middle of the platform. He picked it up, and all the energy from the Void began sucking in it, and Caine was surrounded in a purple aura._

 _Once the Anomaly finally noticed, it was too late._

 _Caine had harnessed all the power, and Gaige and Matt ran over to him in an attempt to stop the madman, somehow._

 _The explosion-wielding Gemini Vault Hunter reacted only by firing purple at them with the circular artefact, throwing them backwards. He fired again. Matt was fast enough to dodge it._

 _Gaige wasn't._

 _Matt turned around to see the Mechromancer, with a hole burnt through her heart. It left sizzling smoke._

 _She only managed to utter the words "I love you" before falling to the ground and dying._

 _As he mourned her death, another beam of purple energy sped towards him imposingly._

* * *

 **So…Matt's in a tough spot right now.**

 **Aurora's being far too doting, everyone is shocked by his scars, and he feels out of commission.**

 **Also, a little bit more on the Vault. I gave an idea of what the Vault looks like when you're inside it, although I didn't reveal what the Vault Guardian was. I felt like it would anticlimactic to reveal what it looked like in a vision. So, the Vault Monster is left blank. Although, that glimpse didn't seem to promising.**

 **I have a feeling the next chapter is going to be really long – so it may take longer to post.**


	15. Forbearance

**Wow, Chapter Fifteen already. Perhaps I should slow down. I'm up to the point where my plan is only about eight chapters ahead. I don't know quite how close I am to the end of the story, though.**

 **It's also nice to know that someone liked this story enough to follow it, too. And 2 people have actually followed me too. Idk why that's so mindblowing to me. But it's not like I'm flexing either. There's nothing to flex, haha.**

 **ALERT: There's a lot in this chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter Fifteen: Forbearance**

* * *

He woke up screaming "Gaige!" and lunged forward in bed.

'Matt?!' Called a voice back. His vision focussed to centre on Gaige, who was standing over him, staring with concerned eyes. She held his shoulder so as to ease his tenseness.

'Oh, hey, Gaige…'

'Are you OK?! You were screaming! You screamed my name!'

'I'm fine…'

'You're sweating!' Frantically refreezing his ice pack, she draped them across his shoulders and over his head until his sweating died down. Matt sighed.

'It's just…nightmare,' he confessed. The Mechromancer immediately became even more worried than before, not certain if this was entirely PTSD-induced.

'Matt, if you're suffering trauma from the Gulag incident, that's perfectly normal.' The girl held both his hands together.

'That wasn't it,' he told her, reluctant to continue. Gaige looked at him with fervent sympathy. 'I don't know if it was a premonition, or just some kind of stress-induced nightmare. I dreamt that we went into the Vault and…'

'And what, Matt?' Gaige asked carefully and lightly.

'I…I saw everyone die,' the Anomaly disclosed, prompting complete silence from her. '…I saw a hole burnt right through your heart, Gaige. In it, you died in my arms.'

The Mechromancer girl could not resist the temptation to embrace him with a tight hug, tears slowly forming in her eyes over the horrific ordeal that he just experienced.

'I'm sorry you had to go through that,' she apologised.

'It's not your fault, Gaige!' Matt protested. 'Don't blame yourself. Ever.' She moved to sit on top of his legs, which surprised him a little.

'You're so strong, Matt,' The Vault Hunter complimented him heart-warmingly. 'If I were you I would've gone insane.' She bent down and kissed him on the lips for a few seconds, before lying down beside him. Gaige nestled her head on his shoulder, and Matt put an arm around her waist.

'How come you were here to begin with?' He asked her, still enjoying the cuddling.

'I was going to cover this plan I had that we could do while you're facing off with Caine.'

 _That's right,_ he thought, _I'm taking on Caine later so I can bring him for questioning. It was my idea, so I might as well go through with it. Gaige can figure stuff like this out quickly…good thing I was counting on her!_

'…But that can wait. For now I want to enjoy this.' She found a more comfortable position, and very lightly dozed off.

Matt considered his options for a moment. Caine had never been a good influence for any of his previously allied Vault Hunters. So taking him in appeared to be the best option for him and them.

Constantly, he would have to remind himself that he purely going to bring the man in – _not_ kill him. Matt would've loved nothing more than to kill him if it were necessary, however it wasn't. The Explosions Master had manipulated him long enough, just like he convinced Gemini to carry out experiments to grant minor aerokinesis.

The man had information, though.

He knew more about the Vault than he did. That's why Caine was confident he was going to find it first. Matt assumed the man was fully aware of how to open it, if his nightmare was anything to go by (if one could consider that a premonition).

Although he did not want to share the details of his dream to anyone else, Matt figured that he might use something from it. Sirens were said to have premonitions every now and then, so it wasn't unreasonable that the Anomaly, who was connected to Sirens, would have a similar situation. Maybe he could talk to Lilith later, but sharing this information widely would be a bad idea since it would damage morale and affect confidence.

Holding back on Caine also seemed to be the most viable option. None of his new associates – not even Gaige, for that matter – knew how much he hated that Gemini Hunter. He preferred to disassociate himself from Caine, but he always seemed to despise Matt more than the other way around, and liked to bring up their past more freely.

Gaige snored for a split-second, slightly removing him from his thoughts.

 _I should show Caine mercy, right?_ He silently wondered. _Even though he'd never do the same? Caine's not one to bestow mercy._

 _No._

 _We're different people. That's one of the reasons that I'm not seen as mentally unstable at times. One of the reasons I'm not viewed as Handsome Jack 2.0. Caine lives as long as he needs to before some ulterior force would bring his demise._

Despite that, it did not mean he could throw Caine to the Vault Guardian and be done with it. That was still murder and there wasn't any way of avoiding the potential guilt. Even if no one would judge him, his own mind would prefer nothing more than to torture him for it.

 _My mind has suffered much trauma, directly connected to my PTSD. My eyes have taken in these tragedies, and my mind has subsequently reminded me of it._

 _The eyes are not the windows to the soul; they are the doors._

Once Caine was in his grasp, the Vault Hunter would not escape.

Tactics were important beforehand, though. He knew Caine well enough to predict his actions in that respect. After hours of watching him train and fight, Matt had an idea of how Caine would go about their impending battle. He may have beaten him before, but that was while he was on full power and while Caine was acting reckless.

Once the Explosions Master had his head in the game, his skill was almost unparalleled. _Almost._ There were still errors in his technique, many small ones that left him unprotected or exposed at certain moments – which he took advantage of much to Caine's chagrin.

Gaige nestled her head further into Matt's body in her sleep for comfort. He briefly smiled at his snoozing girlfriend.

Caine had the tendency to be self-destructive, due to his power having the potential to cause major collateral damage. If the pressure he induced was too high, he might even cause Level 4 earthquakes; the Joules of power required for that would likely damage Caine's own body.

Not to mention he always started the fight, rather than waiting for the other person to react, so that he could properly gauge the threat in front of him. It was unwise to say the least.

Since their last bout was entirely one-sided, as Matt got the drop on Caine, Caine's advancement in dexterity was not altogether evident. This one would allow him to determine easily how far he had come since Matt left Gemini.

They only ever spoke one or twice through the ECHOnet, but neither of them could use it to track the others' locations – nor did Caine need to talk to Matt that often anyway. He tended to be overconfident during those small talks, but even still, he was intelligent. The Anomaly had always considered him a formidable opponent.

'Hey, Gaige,' he softly called, lightly nudging her shoulder to wake her. She slowly opened her eyes.

'Whuh?' She said, trying to remember how to formulate sentences properly. Gaige stifled a slight yawn. 'Did I fall asleep?'

'Yep.'

'For how long?'

'A couple minutes.'

'Did you need me for something?' She wondered, blushing upon suddenly realising she had drooled on his shirt. Matt didn't seem too bothered.

'We're going to take on Caine soon. Out by Overlook,' he explained. 'I wanna hear your part of battle strategy later.'

'Are you sure you're in the correct shape for that?'

Matt eased himself out of bed, surprised that his legs were now completely functional. His nerves showed no sign of permanent damage, and did not cause near searing pain whenever he put pressure on his right leg like before.

'Yes. But I'm gonna have to change shirt, probably.'

'Sorry about that. Probably shouldn't have fallen asleep on you.'

'No, it was…nice.' Matt proceeded to pull a shirt out of his drawer, one with a dark emerald design to it.

'Matt…can I… _see…_ them?' Gaige abruptly asked, as he was about to move into the next room to change.

'See what?'

'The scars.'

Matt blinked. He could quite believe that she wanted to see what he considered to be the ugliest part of him. They made him look like Frankenstein's monster, like his body was struggling to keep itself together. They were signs of recklessness and past trauma to him, and Matt desired not to reopen aging wounds such as those.

'Gaige…' It took some time before he finally nodded. Matt reluctantly lifted up his shirt, revealing his athletic vigour, but also the remains of a more traumatic time.

The Mechromancer quietly gasped, staring at the faint lines where his body had been shot by enemies, bitten by all manner of creatures, hit by a Psycho's buzzaxe, or scraped with sharp scrap metal. There were numerous bruises, some fainter than others, some brown, and some more purple. Faint red lines ran across his back, as though it had been struck with electricity. There were patches of bare skin across his chest, which appeared to be due to metal that had skinned his flesh at extreme velocity – like a vehicle had blown in his face.

Noticeably, some points on his arm had very dark blotches on them, a sign of disfigurement. His knuckles didn't look to have healed properly yet, and the metacarpals in them had evidence that they had previously been fractured and even smashed.

Worst of them perhaps was a deep line going down from the top of his shoulder, down his chest, and under his opposite armpit. The thick line faded the further you followed it, but the depth indicated that there was once a profound gash there, which was probably all part in due to the large bomb which would've sent massive pieces of fragmented metal hurtling towards him.

His body was tearing itself apart at the seams.

Matt noticed her shocked demeanour. _That's what it pays to be all heroic. Well, then again, I'm probably not an actual hero._

'And _I_ thought me cutting myself with my own tools was bad,' she tried to jest, but both of them felt that the joke fell flat. 'Sorry. I probably shouldn't have asked you to do this.'

'It's OK. Besides, the scars aren't the only thing that's new.'

'Yeah, you got that red and black lightning too,' Gaige commented. 'How come?'

'Dunno. It just seems to happen now whenever I activate or charge up my Chronokinesis,' he responded earnestly.

'Do you think you've become more powerful since…? ...You know.'

'Not certain. I haven't used them to its fullest yet. I was only able to stop time _once,_ and I haven't figured out how to do it again.' He scrambled to replace his shirt, checking that the armour plating was fully attached, and the suspender system was tight enough.

'Well, you can't be holding back against Caine.'

That easily caught him off-guard.

'If I wasn't holding back I'd kill him, Gaige. Would you really want me to murder our only asset?' His rhetorical question elicited silence from her as he intended. She slowly shook her head, although Matt was evidently not seeking an answer.

'Sorry,' she finally apologised, as Matt fixed up the last armour piece to his shirt and put his midnight coat on.

'It's fine. I don't caution restraint, Gaige, I embrace it. Using my powers to their absolute limit could kill me.' Matt put an arm around her once he noticed the worried look on her face. 'However, I assure you that I won't let Caine win.'

'What about those Gemini Vault Hunters?'

'I won't be surprised if they're there too; the last time they saw me had been the first in a long time. They might even fight me, but I sincerely hope not.'

'I'm sure Aurora can fill in the details.'

'Keep an eye on her,' Matt fervently ordered.

'Why?' Gaige quizzed, a perplexed disposition forming on her face.

'Just do it.' His girlfriend noticed his brusquely dark attitude, which immediately compelled her to do what he asked.

'Anyway,' she declared, clapping her hands ardently, displaying an unequivocally cheerful mood. 'We better get down to Crimson HQ. I'm sure Lilith will want to go over everything.'

 _Crimson Raider HQ feels like the only place I seem to be in these days. Maybe I should live there instead,_ Matt half complained, half joked. The Anomaly slowly took her hand, which caused her to begin immediately pulling him down the stairs and out the door much like she was fond of doing, especially with her love interest.

No one seemed to question the idea that Matt was going to put Caine in his place and bring him in for interrogation. Even the usually calm and careful Zer0 was on board with it. Lilith did what she did best and analysed the scanner – which displayed a 3D model of Overlook – and listened to Gaige's and Matt's respective battle strategies (for both Matt and the rest of them) as well as solutions to potential problems.

'…So it seems that Caine will try something more calculating during this fight,' Matt explained. 'He's going to be expecting it like we are.'

'While we won't provide him with much time to strategize, from what Matt says, this Caine dude thinks incredibly fast,' Gaige finished.

'How often did you spar?' Axton chimed in.

'Once or twice a week. It usually ended in a tie – even _with_ my Chronokinesis.'

'But your powers are stronger now,' Lilith recounted. 'I've seen it. The colour scheme has been manipulated, which shows another similarity with Sirens: it happens with them too. As a Sirens' power increases, the colour they emit when using them also changes. Kinda like how I have orange wings and Maya has purple.'

'For the record, purple's prettier,' Maya muttered.

'While that's true, Caine's gotten smarter,' Matt warned them.

'He seemed reckless to me, amigo,' Mordecai remembered.

'Because I caught him entirely by surprise. He thought I was dead, so no one was free to attack him while he was _beating_ on Gaige,' Matt explained, darting his eyes at Gaige as he mentioned her. 'So I defeated him. It's an error anyone would've made.'

'I don't understand why you're so adamant that this guy is so intelligent,' Brick said. Matt was about to argue, but Zer0 spoke first.

'A ticking time bomb / He is that on the surface / But not underneath,' the Assassin explained, continuing with another haiku. 'Do not misjudge Caine / Matt has known him for years so / Do trust his judgement.'

'You're right,' Mordecai accepted, as Matt silently nodded.

'As long as there's something to shoot, I don't really mind that much!' Salvador exclaimed, although everyone ignored him.

'Gaige, what's your plan for everyone else?' The Anomaly asked her.

'Mordecai and Zer0 will be keeping watch from a good vantage point, but far enough away that Caine doesn't figure out that he's not alone,' Gaige clarified. 'Maya and Sal will be looking out from Holy Spirits. Axton and Brick will be near the clock tower. Lilith and I will be here, surveying the scene from the monitor. Aurora will be with you of course.' Aurora nodded at him, but said nothing. 'In case Caine _does_ bring his Vault Hunter buddies, we'll be ready.'

'You don't want to get in on the action?' Matt teased. Gaige giggled.

'Only if necessary.'

'Aww, but I wanted to see Deathtrap slash things into pieces!' He jovially moaned. Gaige impishly punched his shoulder.

'There's more to me than my robot you know!' She reminded him laughably. Maya loudly sighed.

'Now I understand what Axton's talking about when he complains about flirting,' she protested, slowly facepalming.

'I know right?!' Axton emphasised.

'Shut up!' Gaige joked, pouting cutely.

'This mission is more important than Gaige and Matt's adorable relationship,' Aurora stated expressionlessly, causing Gaige to turn bright red.

'Don't lie, it pains you too,' Maya observed. Aurora ignored her.

'How about we get into position, slabs?' Brick suggested, swiftly moving off subject.

'I'll call Caine,' Matt declared, walking away from the congregation of Vault Hunters, out the building and away from human contact down an alleyway. With his ECHO device, he accessed the ECHOnet and quickly called Caine. Matt transmitted the call to his ECHOear.

'I believe it's time we properly meet face to face.'

'Well, well, _well,'_ cackled a voice on the other end. Caine had taken up the call. 'You're sounding awfully spritely for someone whose spine was shattered.'

'I could say a similar thing to you, Caine,' Matt replied. 'Considering I punched you so hard you went flying into the stratosphere.'

'What makes you think I would care to meet with you face to face?' Caine asked him unthoughtfully.

'You mean you don't want to bring me in?' He responded, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

'I could kill you if I wanted to, you know.'

'And yet you have failed. And even if you did, I can't imagine Gemini would like it. Nor would Duke, Dan and the rest. Are you willing to risk that?'

'Fuck you.'

'I'll take that as you hadn't realised that until now.'

'You're weak, Matt. You overestimate your abilities, and it sickens me to the core.'

'We're evenly matched, Caine.'

'Spare me the disservice of comparing yourself to me, Anomo.'

'If we aren't, then explain how our fights are hardly one-sided all too often? Why _wouldn't_ you want to find out which one of us is stronger?'

'I already know the answer to that question,' Caine revolted. 'I am.'

'Prove it.' Caine actually laughed at that harsh demand.

'I am going to enjoy crushing both you and your spirit.'

'It's a date with the devil,' Matt replied gruffly. 'Overlook. Thirty minutes. Me and Aurora. _Come alone._ '

'So that traitor's with you too?' Caine assumed. Matt immediately recognised that Gemini had discovered her alteration of allegiance. 'Knew she couldn't resist you. Typical…' He sighed to pretend that he cared. 'You're lucky that the Corporation can't find her parents, or they'd be dead by now.'

'Why are you pretending to care?'

'Because I am going to rip their hearts from their chests.' **(A/N: Sound a little familiar? I mean, I only changed the line _a bit_.)**

' _Overlook,'_ Matt stressed. ' _Thirty_ minutes.'

'I heard you _the first time,_ Anomo _._ ' Matt ignored Caine's derogatory nickname and simply hummed an "hm" of agreement, before hanging up.

Matt cracked his knuckles, walking away from _The Highlands: Overlook_ fast travel machine.

'Is everyone in position?' He asked over the ECHO.

'We are, Matt,' Maya notified. She glared at Salvador when he began drinking from a large pint glass. The Siren slapped his wrist. 'We're here to survey the scene, Sal, not intoxicate ourselves!'

'But we all need alcohol, no?' He pleaded.

'You don't even _like_ Zaford beer!' She whispered, careful not to piss off Mick Zaford.

'Would you two shut it, eh?' Mordecai snapped, aiming down the scope of his trusty slag sniper. He kept his aim on Matt, as he walked down with Aurora.

'This mission matters / Therefore we must stay focussed / And we need to hunt,' Zer0 advised. Axton nodded to him.

'I'd listen to Zer0 if I were you, Sal,' Gaige chimed in over the ECHO. She examined the scanner, which displayed a map of Overlook and several red dots labelled with the names of Vault Hunters. Two dots – designated "Matt" and "Aurora" – were noticeably moving down by through the settlement.

'Problem: we aren't registering any unrecognised life signs within a one-mile radius,' Lilith warned.

'Caine's off the grid. He knows how to get past scanners, but his Vault Hunter buddies don't. Given how he doesn't share, the scanner is telling you that Caine didn't bring our old friends.' It was clear that while Matt told them that, the pronoun "our" was directed towards him and Aurora.

'Stay sharp,' Aurora reminded everyone.

'You got it, slab,' Brick confirmed.

'I'm not a…whatever,' Aurora mumbled.

* * *

Matt and Aurora stood out by the Overlook exit, waiting to see when Caine would show up. It had been 28 minutes since Matt had called him and organised their meeting. He would be here soon.

'Is he…gonna show up?' Maya wondered, not certain if Caine was known for his honour all too much.

Her question rang true apparently, as Matt looked up to see a colossal ship warp in from nowhere, with a man on a hoverboard flying out from one of the exits. The Anomaly acknowledged how much of an idiot Caine looked like as he flew down towards them.

He landed, and stared them down.

The emergence of the Gemini military ship drew a lot of attention, mostly from people inside the Holy Spirits, but also from residents of Overlook who favoured now to stay in their homes even more than before.

' _You_ like to make an entrance,' Matt observed calmly, staring back at him.

'What can I say? I wanted insurance that you wouldn't try to capture me,' Caine reasoned. While the Anomaly maintained a poker face, internally he was gritting his teeth. He knew the Explosions Master might consider it a possibility, but Matt was not hoping he'd act on it.

'Caine,' Aurora briskly hailed.

'Aury,' he returned to passive-aggressive behaviour with one of his derogatory nicknames that Aurora hated. 'I knew you were a traitor at heart.'

'I knew _you_ were a _dick_ at heart,' the Vault Hunter retorted.

'As feisty as ever. I can see why you like her, Anomo.' Aurora went red for a few seconds, but sighed, and it alleviated.

'"Anomo"?' Gaige called with confusion over the ECHO, taking a few seconds to realise that the nickname was based off Matt's Vault Hunter title.

'Is that your friends over the ECHO? Are they going to hear you _die?'_ Caine exaggerated psychotically, before refraining. 'Nuh-uh. I'm not fighting unless it's Matt and Matt alone. Don't make me bring the rest of Gemini's Vault Hunters.' The Anomaly sighed.

'Fine.' Aurora tugged his arm to grab his attention.

'Are you sure about this?' She asked quietly, remaining out of earshot of Caine.

'Relax, I've got this.'

'ALERT: MR RYE, IF YOU DO NOT BRING YOURSELF IN, WE _WILL_ FIRE.' That was the voice of the Executive Battalion Commander, James Sharp, blaring out from the Gemini ship. He was never a fan of Caine, because he thought that the man preferred to do his own thing rather directly follow orders. However, he had been useful enough to back-up. He always liked Matt though, as Sharp saw the potential in him, more than Caine.

'You're going to fire on this little town all because I don't feel like going with you?' Matt yelled back. He then lowered the volume and looked back at Caine. ' _I'm_ not fighting if you're just going to use Overlook as leverage. Commander Sharp should _not_ be here, nor will that ship fire on Overlook.' Caine reluctantly nodded, to desperate for blood.

'Sharp, stand down.'

'I don't take orders from _you_ , Caine.'

'But you do from the CEO, and the CEO wants Matt. Fire on Overlook, and he'll be gone before you can destroy it. If that happens, this mission will be worthless.' Salvador noticed a struggle of power as he stared out the window. It appeared that the CEO of the Gemini Corporation thought so highly of Caine that he was willing to allow him to enact his rulings.

After a minute of silence from Sharp's speakers, there was a beep. The guns on the ship shifted, and several panels moved and covered the cannons.

'ALERT: IF YOU DO NOT BRING HIM IN, MR BROOKE, YOU WILL BE DISCHARGED FROM THE CORPORATION EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.'

Caine knew he couldn't do that without authorisation, but he didn't care, since Matt's own foolishness would do most of the work for him. His thought process was that, if the Anomaly allowed himself to be blown up by Hyperion, then his fighting prowess and general intelligence must have greatly diminished over time. Not to mention he might still be recovering from it too.

Once he was certain that he and Matt were about to engage in a fight, Caine continued talking.

'You lot probably think I'm the villain,' Caine noted, before raising his voice. 'Is that right?' He was directing this at all the people Matt had on his current ECHOnet comms. 'In your little story you're the hero, but in mine, it's the other way around. That is the nature of sentience: to defy.

'However, we don't think the same. You blindfold yourself to avoid the actuality. So, here's the sad truth, folks: not all men are created equal. Not every living being is created with a sense of warmth and love implemented into their heart. Not everyone gets a happy ending. Not everyone gets to be as lucky as you, Matt – we don't all get to be universally accepted by all sentient human beings.

'Some of us get rejected for not doing as asked. Some of us get thrown away when we aren't useful anymore. _Some_ of us get punished for doing the right thing.'

Everyone could hear this, and despondent faces changed into confused looks. Gaige and Lilith remained silent as they watched over the situation, and not liking the unhealthy number of red dots sprawled around Overlook. Meanwhile, Mordecai was aiming down his sights, prepared to shoot the Gemini Vault Hunter if he had to. He gave one look to Brick, who began cracking his knuckles.

 _What's Caine talking about?_ Maya conjectured in her thoughts, readying her powers with a glow of her tattoos. Sal stopped her before she could exit the bar and do something that would jeopardize the mission even further.

'Brothers in arms,' Matt muttered, albeit unsteadily. 'I can't change your past, Caine. What I _can_ do is ease your future.'

'The Vault has unknown energies inside. Its technology can help me quite adequately,' The Explosions Master supplemented. Matt suddenly had flashes of the nightmare he had recently, where the Vault revealed an artefact shortly after the mysterious Vault Monster was defeated. What he saw in that vision may be what Caine was referring to.

 _Whatever that artefact was, I can't let Caine get his hands on it. I already saw everyone die once, and that was just to the Monster. Having that relic would have untold effects on Pandora,_ the Anomaly surmised.

'I'm here to stop you, Caine,' he declared.

'Try.'

Instantaneously, Caine went in for a lunge at Matt, which he expected from him. He pushed Aurora aside, and then dodged the concussive blasts of air that Caine threw at him. Firmly planting a punch to his ribs, and then a kick, the man was sent flying back, but stopped himself before he could hit a house and suffer further damage.

Even more blasts were created, each one a little more powerful than the last, and a few of them were too fast for Matt to evade. He was thrown back and hit his head on the grass. The Anomaly gestured to Aurora to stay where she was. Momentarily, this confused Caine.

'You could dodge them _BEFORE!'_ He screamed, using his pressured air explosions to manoeuvre his way towards Matt. A solid punch landed on the Vault Hunter's face, but he managed to kick Caine far back enough to give himself some breathing room.

The Explosions Master inspected him carefully, but could see no evidence of black and red lightning emanating from Matt; no sign that he was slowing time. Caine felt his scar sweating.

The Anomaly fired back with his recently re-acquired Double Anarchy. If there was any time to use it, it was certainly now. Unfortunately, Caine's high capacity shield seemed to be absorbing most of it. It was a turtle shield, which was good for Matt. It had a Pangolin capacitor, but also a Pangolin battery. Its recharge delay would low, and the rate would be mildly so.

'So uncivilised,' Caine commented. 'But I suppose we should be used to that by now. Bombs are pretty barbaric, if I do say so myself.'

'What are you talking about?' Matt demanded, as he predicted the Explosions Master's next move and avoided the concussions accordingly.

'Who do you think made that bomb that was supposed to kill you?' Caine taunted. The Anomaly's eyes widened, remembering how intricate and complex the design was, each component meticulously put together.

Suddenly, everyone understood why Matt insisted that Caine was intelligent. To make something that could not be defused by even their greatest explosives expert – according to Tiny Tina, after they spoke to her about Matt following his apparent death – so casually was something sickeningly impressive.

'Hyperion hired you to do that?' Matt assumed.

'Yep. Nowadays, you can do almost anything if you have the money. And people will do almost anything for the right price.'

'And is _Gemini_ aware of that?'

'Since Gemini want you alive, you can fathom that it was kept from them. Hyperion even kept from _me_ what they were planning on blowing up with it, so you can guess as to its high confidentiality.' Matt really despised how Caine liked to speak to him as they were close friends sharing stories over coffee.

He leaped forward quickly and punched Caine in the face. The speed was vastly slower than he had performed the last time they fought.

What was Matt doing?

A shot was fired at Caine, and he choked on the slag fumes. He glared at the clock tower, and saw Zer0 and Mordecai. With one warning explosion that knocked them off their feet, he sighed.

'Don't try that again,' he cautioned, and then turned back to Matt, who didn't respond. A punch was thrown his way, but Caine blocked it. 'I figured you'd have your other buddies with you.' He jabbed him back.

Aurora ignored his warning and fired a shot at him with her Eridium revolver. Annoyed by the hit to his shoulder, Caine set off a micro-explosion at her leg, which broke her concentration. Immediately, he moved to put his hands around her throat and began to strangle her.

'I'm sorry, did I stutter?' Caine heartlessly demanded ironically, fully aware that she could not answer.

Matt gritted his teeth, but did not say a word. The Explosions Master turned, Aurora still struggling in her grip.

'C'mon, what are you going to do?' He taunted. Matt merely stared him down.

The Anomaly's arm starting glowing crimson, as black and red lightning began surging through it. Although, after only a second, the power dissipated and faded. Caine stepped back, loosening his hold on Aurora, who fell to the ground and gasped for air.

'What are you doing?!' Caine probed. 'Why didn't you –'

It was clear to him what the Explosions Master was trying to do, though the motive was not.

 _Caine wants me to use my powers…! But why? Why try to manipulate me?_

Matt ducked from an angry punch from the man, and kicked the back of his leg. He fell to his knees, which allowed him to sucker punch him forcefully. However, Caine did not seem too affected.

'You won't be able to beat me while powerless, Anomo!'

The Anomaly merely ignored him, and wiped some blood from his lip. He fired the rest of his Anarchy's clip and reloaded. Caine's shield tanked the bullets easily. He stepped forward and focussed a strong pressured blast that send Matt flying back.

The Anomaly stayed silent.

'You're a coward, Anomo!' Caine insulted. 'You are too scared to use your own powers against me! You can't protect anyone, you worthless little shit! Tut, tut, no wonder your sister was murdered by Hyperion. Probably deserved it for your insolence!'

While it was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back, there was only silence amongst all the Vault Hunters. The ship flying overhead somehow even appeared silent. Caine stared down angrily, while Matt was frozen in shock. Aurora looked at him, noticing his sudden panic attack. The Anomaly was unresponsive, his mind filled with horrific images that day when his sister was mercilessly killed.

* * *

Lilith heard that over the comms, and could not utter a single word, and nor could Gaige. Gaige instead elected to put her hands to her face in shock, but was more trying to hide her rapidly increasing anger. She bolted from the scanner room to the balcony and jumped down.

'Gaige!' The Siren called after her, but the Mechromancer did not listen. She was instead running for the fast travel.

* * *

Caine looked at Matt proudly, revelling in his panic attack. The Anomaly was hyperventilating, his pupils contracting to the point where they almost invisible.

'Cat got your tongue?' He tormented devilishly. 'It's your sister who should be remaining silent, not you. You know? Because… _bang, bang?'_ The Explosions Master gesturing a gun firing twice with his hand.

Matt could imagine two bullets firing from his hand, and his mind altered the scene to where his sister, Amelia Rye, was hit in the back of the head by a Hyperion pistol. Blood splattered. He had no idea that he was _this_ sensitive. He _thought_ panic attacks didn't happen anymore.

'S-stop,' Matt insisted, clear weakness in his voice. It was not directed to Caine, instead the soldier in his memory. Though Matt was shedding no tears, he was in abundance in his daytime mare.

'It's OK, Anomo, _we can't change our past_ ,' he mimicked him. 'Too bad your sister's too dead to remind you.'

'Leave him ALONE!' Bawled a voice to Caine's right. He turned to see a metal arm come flying towards him. Once the fist made contact, he was sent flying backwards.

'Uh…' Caine groaned. Matt remained frozen, until Gaige grabbed a hold of him.

'Matt!' She shook him, and he snapped out of it.

'Gaige? What are _you_ doing here?'

'I _told_ you I would come in if necessary. I'd say _this_ is necessary!' Before he could attempt to dissuade her, Caine pointed his arm at her and stopped them.

'Don't make me kill her, Matt.' The Anomaly could spot him powering up pockets of pressured air around his palms, which activated Matt's powers by instinct.

'You got this, Matt,' Gaige whispered.

Once again, his arm began sparking with black and red lightning. It almost reached critical mass, but The Anomaly stopped tensing and the lightning died down. Caine was stunned.

'You didn't use them…!' He realised. 'WHY AREN'T YOU USING YOUR POWERS?!' The Explosions Master lunged forward, but was stopped in his tracks as his hand was shot.

A glowing purple and gold bullet landed by his side, after it had gone straight through his hand. He looked to Aurora, whose Eridium revolver was smoking slightly. She began to get up.

The pockets of air disappeared, as his palm began spouting blood. He could not throw his explosions for the time being.

'It's called mercy, Caine,' Matt elucidated, breaking his silence towards his destructive rival. He was still clutching his bleeding hand.

'Why would you dare to show mercy to _me?'_ He demanded.

'Because that's what heroes do,' the young man explicated, adjusting his coat cuffs casually. Gaige looked on at him quite proudly.

'No…' Caine murmured, getting back up and closing his fist for a punch. Matt blocked it, and countered it with a sharp punch to his gut. His rival answered that with a quick right hook that the Anomaly ducked. He sent a diagonal uppercut then threw the man back a good distance.

Notably, the man got even angrier. So he went charging towards Matt. Caine let out a blood-curdling battle cry, but it didn't offset the Anomaly's concentration. As he went charging in, Matt tripped him up slightly, causing him to stumble forwards. He landed a forceful elbow to the back of Caine's neck, which caused him to faceplant. Taking advantage of pressure points, Matt carefully pressed his thumb into his scalp, causing enough pain that Caine would not attempt to move or get up.

'If I used my Chronokinesis, I might have killed you,' he told him, whispering into his ear, before knocking him out with the butt of his Double Anarchy.

'ALERT: CAINE IS DOWN. INITIATE BARRAGE,' yelled Commander Sharp over the loudspeaker. Matt had almost forgotten that the ship was even there. The guns appeared from the cannons, and began firing on Overlook's shield. It was not as powerful as Sanctuary's, so it was a matter of time before the guns would break through it.

'Everyone: to the fast travel, now!' The Anomaly directed. He signalled to Gaige to help him with dragging Caine, and nodded to Aurora to run to the fast travel. Hopefully Gemini would cease once they'd realised they'd lost Caine.

Within moments, the shield of Overlook shattered, and bullets started flying through. Residents began hiding away from their windows. The Gemini ship began charging some if its more powerful weapons, and was about to fire, but an energy blast hit the ship.

Several more blasts collided with it, moving the hovering spaceship backwards a little. Matt looked up to see that the blasts were firing from the Hyperion cannon in the recently-abandoned Hyperion station facing Overlook. It was taking a few seconds to hit after it was firing, but the first shot had taken the driver off guard so much that the next few shots were able to hit.

'No one d-destroys my town!' Declared a voice over the Overlook loudspeaker, which initially used to pronounce annoying statements from Hyperion. She was remotely controlling the cannon.

'Karima?!' Matt bellowed in response.

'Hey M-Matt! Can't talk, though! Get out of here, n-now!' She ordered. Matt smiled, as Brick began helping to move Caine.

'Actually…Lilith?' He addressed, tapping his ECHOear. 'Teleport? We need Caine over there without having to grant him access to Sanctuary on the fast travel.'

'You got it,' the Siren agreed over the ECHO. Brick then realised he would not need to help Matt now that Lilith was going to instead.

As the Vault Hunters collected in central Overlook. Maya, Brick, Zer0, Mordecai, Salvador and Aurora all used the fast travel to get to Sanctuary. Lilith then teleported in a flash of purple. She was holding onto Matt and Gaige – who were still dragging Caine – and vanishing with them to Sanctuary.

* * *

He sighed.

'Damn,' Sharp cussed, turning to his Gemini co-workers within the Taurus spaceship. 'Abort. There's no way we're getting to Caine now. We might as well get back to Lima Base One on Elpis. Alert the driver to chart a course.' His associate nodded, and walked through the sliding door and out Commander Sharp's office.

* * *

 **Well, that chapter was long. It's actually the longest one I have written out of all them, since its near 7k words. Not to mention that it's fast approaching 300 pages (A5).**

 **I think it was also pretty obvious what the theme in this chapter is. The name fits it well, since the fight between Caine and Matt was all about the concept of forbearance. How Caine doesn't understand it, and how Matt holds the particular trait to a high regard.**

 **I decided to include some more OCs, because lord knows there aren't enough of those. Commander Sharp is a pretty important character, especially since it will be a good while until we see the director himself. Sharp's in-commands (like deputy, for example) will also show up, and what they do affects the flow of the story a bit.**

 **So I guess I'll get to writing Chapter Sixteen…**


	16. Iron Hand

**So, this little story has gone far. Funnily enough, this started out as a small project with the simple question of "What if there was another Vault on Pandora?" Then I started writing out notes of my ideas on what such a new Vault could entail. I've read Brigadoon before, so the concept of a village that only appears periodically I thought perfectly fitted for a Vault.**

 **So I started planning the chapters, and I looked across this Fanfiction website to see other people who may have written a similar story (as in, a new Vault Hunter). I took a bit of inspiration from them, but I made sure I wasn't plagiarising.**

 **Also, thanks to wyattmh2012 for reviewing. It's nice to know I'm not fucking this up!**

 **Anyway, I've rambled on for far too long, here's the new chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter Sixteen: Iron Hand**

* * *

Matt did not hesitate with throwing Caine into one of Marshal Friedman's cells and then tying him up in a reinforced steel chair. He was certain to place strong carbon steel metal chain cylinders around his arms, so that his powers would not activate.

The Anomaly was kind enough to inject a hypo into his palm to heal the hole in it. However, that did not mean that Matt was going to give first-class service or anything.

Matt pulled up a chair and sat down, looking at Caine, but questioning himself if he should really talk to him. He dispelled those doubts within moments, remembering the reason in which they captured Caine.

'The Vault.' The chained Vault Hunter looked up, rustling the metal slightly.

'What of it?'

'What do you know of it?' For a moment, Caine actually laughed, despite the pain that was induced because of it.

'Like hell am I giving you anything,' he bitterly replied. Matt was not surprised that the man would not reply.

'We could do this the easy way, or the hard way,' Matt threatened.

'Was that a threat? Tut, so uncivilised.'

'You're one to talk. You literally _built_ a bomb.'

'For _money.'_ Matt sighed.

'This is irrelevant. _The Vault._ What do you know?' Caine shook his head.

'You can torture me all you want; I'm not giving up any information.' There was absolute certainty in his voice, and he glared at him with a burning stare.

'Don't we have a common goal here?' Matt suggested to him. 'We both want to find the Vault. We both plan to take out the Vault Monster guarding it.'

'I'll do it on my own terms. Gemini wouldn't be too pleased that I'd be working with their number one convict. Not to mention my despised rival.'

'Gemini? You're kidding, right? They left you!'

'Eh?'

'They gave up on you instantly after we took you hostage. No doubt Commander Sharp is kicking back on Elpis in his office at Lima Base One right now.'

Caine grunted a displeased grumble. He looked up at him not with confusion, but slight discomfort at the dawn of this new information. He did not seem to care too much that the Gemini Corporation had abandoned him which did not shock Matt all too much; he liked to go more solo.

Inexplicably, there was a vibration of banging from behind the jailed Hunter. It was like a hydraulic press was attempting to crush a can that still had air in it. They sounded like… _weak explosions._ Matt got up and walked behind to observe that Caine was attempting to blast through his shackles to no avail.

'Don't try that,' the Anomaly notified him.

'I'm not telling you anything.'

Matt sighed, and took the chair he sat on and placed it out of the cell. Although intending to return later, he closed the barred door.

'Don't walk away from me, Anomo!' The Explosions Master exclaimed. Matt disregarded his furious pleas, and walked off.

Gaige was waiting outside of Marshal Friedman's office building. She had her arms behind her back, staring at the ground, and was awkwardly pivoting on the tip of her right foot. Her face lit up when she saw Matt.

'Anything from him?' She inquired hopefully. He looked at her downheartedly, and shook his head regretfully. Her ecstatic look promptly drained.

'Sorry,' he unnecessarily apologised. The Mechromancer waved her hand dismissively.

'Lilith and Maya want you, by the way,' she updated him, although did not seem too interested in them.

'What for?' Matt queried.

'Something to do with training, I dunno.'

'We'll see,' Matt replied. 'Where are you going, then?'

'To Overlook, gonna help Karima with her shield repairs,' Gaige answered. 'Apparently the Gemini assault shorted out the capacitor.' Matt nodded, breathing an "ah" sound of comprehension.

'Good luck.' She nodded, and pecked him on the cheek.

The Anomaly revelled in taking a stroll around Sanctuary, his hands in his pockets. There was bounding noise, but it was mostly all silence in his head. Despite the vociferous clamour about the town, Matt could always count on a walk around Sanctuary to clear his head. Even if there was a destination and it wasn't just mindless wandering.

Whatever Lilith and Maya desired him for, it certainly did not seem all too urgent. Gaige only briefly mentioned it, and did not seem all too concerned about it. He could tell straight away that this was about Sirens specifically, and he did not need to be a fully-fledged detective to figure that out. The main thing they had in common if their Siren connection – although Matt was a technicality, since he wasn't strictly speaking a Siren anyway.

However, that did not stop Lilith from treating him like a younger brother, or as part of her brethren. If the Vault was going to be opened using Siren power, Matt supposed, he might as well get to know the people that that power pertained to.

It seemed strange to consider how, before he met them, the closest he had been to a Siren was within ten metres of Commandant Steele. Steele was dead though, as Lilith had cited when she had teleported them back to Sanctuary earlier.

'You look like something's on your mind,' observed a voice. Matt spun around towards Crimson Raider Headquarters and saw Maya leaning on the door.

'Just thinking about the past,' he vaguely admitted. 'Still can't quite believe all this stuff about me and the Vault.'

'Well it ain't getting any less crazy, kiddo,' she replied, maintaining her snarky attitude.

'I take it that's because it never usually does?'

'Yep.' Initially, the Anomaly stood there, awkwardly, not sure whether or not that the end of the conversation, or Maya was expecting him to press further and ask something else. Then the realisation of why he was walking dawned upon him once again.

'Right! You and Lilith wanted me for something…?' He asked. She nodded.

'Lil said it was something to do with more training, or something,' Maya confirmed. 'Guess where.'

'Central plaza,' Matt deduced, sighing when she nodded again. 'No rest for the wicked, right? Come on.'

'Alright, _Anomaly,'_ the Siren teased. He laughed, and beckoned to her to follow. She did, the two walking side by side to the plaza. It was a sunny day on this side of Pandora.

Maya did her best not to stare at Matt, but could not hide that she was thinking about him, although purely platonically. The Anomaly was sort of a brother to him, despite the fact that she did not know him all too well. Mainly, their connection lied between how Matt was essentially a Siren, however a male.

No one doubted that the Anomaly was powerful, on par with Lilith in multiple aspects, but it was evident that there was some part of him that had guilt in using them. That was understandable, considering it was Hyperion who gave him them. And if his powers pertained to that company, one he never really liked, it was not unexpected that sometimes Matt might wish he didn't have them.

Aware that she was probably reading too much into it, Maya shook off these thoughts.

However, the Siren did admire Matt quite largely. His motive and drive was exceptional, but that wasn't the only thing. Not only did the Vault Hunter possess surprising expertise in his abilities, he also exhibited extreme self-control. Maya recognised that it must have taken a lot of willpower for Matt not to kill Caine when he threatened them and pummelled Gaige. Furthermore, it must have required a lot of self-discipline not to use his Chronokinesis on Caine during their fight earlier.

Honestly, Maya was not certain if she would be able to do the same.

 _If he can be that powerful while showing restraint…_ she thought to herself, _what would he be like when he ISN'T holding back?_ She shuddered. The Siren was almost scared to imagine what Matt would be like when he was truly pissed off…and boundless.

'Hey, killer!' Called a voice that snapped her out of her thoughts. Lilith was standing at the plaza, or what remained of it since Sanctuary went up in the air.

'What's up, Lil?' Matt replied warmly. Maya nodded to assure her that she was paying attention.

'Some more training to get you back into shape!' The red-haired Siren exclaimed. 'I believe we will need to enhance your synchrony with us Sirens.'

'So what better way than for you to go a few round with us?' Maya finished. 'We want to see how well you can use your abilities in tandem with ours.'

'Yep,' Lilith confirmed, but her right arm on her hip. ''Sides, you can't be spending all of your time with Gaige, you know.' He went red for a few moments, before scratching his scalp.

'Well, she _is_ my girlfriend…' Matt reasoned.

'Oh? Is the Anomaly _blushing?'_ Lilith teased, giggling as she put her hand over her mouth. He sighed.

'Are we going to practice or not?' The Vault Hunter asked impatiently, not wanting to linger on the subject of his recent partner. Lilith nodded, holding her arm out towards him, pressing his index and middle finger together, and bent them a few times. She was evidently beckoning for him to come and take her on.

* * *

Commander James Sharp observed over the footage from the Taurus spaceship. He was on Lima Base One, staring at the scanner in one of the briefing rooms.

'Three, rewind the footage again,' he ordered. His third in command dutifully obliged, turning back the footage a few moments.

He leaned in closer.

'Do you see that?' He asked her, pointing to Matt. On the footage, black and red lightning was emanating from his arm, but it disappeared quickly.

'I see it, sir,' she agreed. 'It seems like he has unlocked some higher tier of his Chronokinesis.'

'Not only that, but it looks like he held back from using his powers,' Sharp inferred. 'Even without them, he was able to outwit Caine.' The commander had not been able to view it fully before, since he did not see all of the fight. He had seen some of it on the brig, but it difficult to see all of it since Caine was mainly stealing the limelight and preventing him from watching anything. He only knew when Caine was down for the count.

Now, with this new angle granted by the footage, he could see it much better.

Three furrowed her brow when Matt suddenly froze solid and did not seem to be engaging his enemy.

'Sir, what's he doing?' She wondered, trying to get a closer look.

'I didn't hear their conversation from up in Taurus, but it seems Mr Brooke said something to him.' the man admitted regretfully.

'So why would he just stop fighting like that?' His associate enquired further.

'Mr Rye has experienced a lot of tragedy in his life,' Commander Sharp told her. 'He was taken by Hyperion and experimented on. His sister, Amelia, I think her name was, was murdered by the same corporation too. The young man's family left him to fend for himself, no strings attached. All the while, this rivalry between himself and Mr Brooke had been brewing.' Three felt sympathy for Matt, but maintained an expert poker face to hide it.

'So it seems that Caine set him off,' finished a voice from behind them, concluding the commander's sentence. They turned to see Two, who was walking through the sliding door into the room. He stepped forward to examine the footage. James's second in command zoomed in at the moment just after Matt tensing up, and played it on loop.

'It seems so, yes.' Commander Sharp nodded. Two pointed at Caine, the enhanced recording now making it much easier to see what he, in particular, was doing.

'He's goading him,' his deputy enlightened. 'You see he made the gesture of a gun? There's no way in hell he _isn't_ referencing the Anomaly's sister's brutal murder.' He then reset the tape and skipped ahead. 'I can see why you liked him, sir, even _after_ Caine caused him a panic attack, the Anomaly _still_ refused to kill him.'

'Or even use his powers at all,' Three added. The commander zoomed in on another aspect of the video: a young girl running towards Matt and snapping him out of his trance.

'Well would you look at that?' The military veteran chuckled. 'Mr Rye has a new significant other.'

'You're certain they're together?' Two doubted.

'Yes.'

'Just look at the love in her eyes!' Three watched avidly, finding the girl's display of affection empathetic.

'Either way, Mr Brooke has been captured,' Sharp reminded them, shaking off the awkward conversation. 'If we want to get him back, we will have to send our forces in. Not just our Vault Hunters.'

He regretted threatening Caine with expulsion from Gemini if he failed, because James was angry. He had liked Matt, so seeing him turn against them in person had not sat too well with him. So he had to give Mr Brooke an ulterior motive besides hating the Anomaly. By rescuing him, perhaps the battalion commander could prove to Caine that they depended on him.

'Shall I instruct Violet, Duke, Dan, and Arcturus to train in preparation?' Three suggested.

'Definitely. Miss Parker and Mr Vaus especially. They are potentially our most powerful assets,' James concurred. Three nodded and walked out the door of the scanner room.

'What would you like to me to do, sir?' Two queried.

'I need you to find that young girl, and perhaps Miss Lux and her parents while you are at it.'

'You think the girl could be a way to get to the Anomaly?' He deduced, to which Sharp hummed an approval.

'They're likely in Sanctuary right now, but I am well aware that they can be lured out every now and then.'

'Where would you like me to go, sir?'

'We damaged Overlook's shield in the barrage attack. There's no doubt that that Karima woman would be asking for some help in repairing it. You just need to wait in Overlook before that young girl comes to help fix it.'

'What makes you so sure that the girl will be the one to answer to call for help?'

'I can see the guilt in her eyes over it,' the commander answered, looking at the end of the recording, where the girl was looking quite remorseful over the destruction of the shield. 'It's written all over her. If you can get in before the shield's restored, you won't have a problem taking her down. Take Four with you if you must.'

'Yes, sir.' Two turned around and left the room.

* * *

Matt dodged a punch from Lilith as she entered her Phasewalk. Maya's Phaselock was still on cooldown, thankfully, but that did not stop her from firing bullets from her shock SMG.

 _Her gun's really depleting my shield,_ he noticed. _Even though I'm dodging most of the projectiles!_

The Anomaly sensed that Lilith was about the exit Phasewalk behind him and stepped out of the way of her kick, responding with a hard hit from the butt of his Double Anarchy. The force sent the Siren off her balance, but she recovered quickly.

'You're not really using your powers that much, are you?' The fiery woman acknowledged. She was able to use Maya as a distraction to put him in a headlock briefly. 'Why?'

'It's…because' – Matt broke from the hold and responded with an armlock, using her as a meat shield – 'I can't depend on them!'

'This whole session is about your powers,' Maya pointed out, holding her fire now that she would probably hit Lilith.

'Your ability to manipulate Siren energies is _incredibly_ useful,' the other Siren pointed out, still struggling in the Anomaly's grip.

'And you want to take advantage of me for that?' Matt concluded, with the bitterness at the concept clear in his voice.

'Of course not!' Maya objected. 'The Vault will likely need Siren energy to open it. You seem to be one who has most potential to harness it.' Matt sighed, relieved, and let go of Lilith.

'You _know_ we aren't like Gemini or Hyperion,' Lilith reminded him. 'I get that you might be on edge since your battle with Caine, but understand that no one is trying to use you.'

'OK,' the Anomaly accepted, sighing compliantly.

'So, you can change the target of Maya's Phaselock, so I want to see if you can do something similar with my Phasewalk,' the fiery woman explicated.

Matt didn't seem too convinced, when he admitted, 'I dunno. Most of it is just… _instinct._ I could do it before I even understood that it was due to a connection to Sirens.'

'It's no use if you don't try,' Maya pointed out. The Anomaly nodded, and Lilith's tattoos glowed purple and then orange. She disappeared in a flash of purple, creating a sphere of energy that dispersed into their surroundings.

The Vault Hunter focussed his newly-recognised Siren instincts. Trying to find Lilith, he was able to sense her presence in the Phasewalking domain. He could detect that the woman was running around, although thankfully not attacking him just yet. Determined, Matt honed his perception on his fellow Vault Hunter.

Alarmingly, the Siren was coming in for a punch, drawing back her arm. No doubt she was aware that the Anomaly could tell where she moving. That wasn't the point. Matt supposed this was to raise the stakes, and get his adrenaline running.

 _A smart choice,_ he complimented, _especially since most of my Siren powers work by instinct._

Lilith was getting closer, and was exiting her Phasewalk. By instinct, his arm crackled with black and crimson lightning. Red energy swirled around his palm, and he directed towards where he identified she was in the Phasewalk dimension. Matt then moved his arm to point at Maya.

Instantly, Lilith exited Phasewalk, but instead of landing in front of the Anomaly, she appeared in front of her fellow Siren. The Siren had built up too much momentum in her jump to prevent herself from colliding with her, although she reacted fast enough to prevent her punch. They both fell onto the ground.

Matt ran to them to help them up.

'Sorry,' he apologised, lending out a hand. Lilith took it, and then helped Maya up.

'Don't be,' she comforted.

'Yeah, after all, you succeeded,' Maya added. 'You managed to change where Lilith came out of Phasewalk.' Lilith put a hand on his shoulder.

'Nice work, killer,' she commended. Matt nodded and smiled. 'Once we find the Vault, you should be able to open it.'

'Now go take a rest. You've earned it,' Maya beamed. The Anomaly nodded once more, and then turned away and walked up the steps. He was about to walk back to his house when noticed Gaige walking into Marshall Friedman's sheriff jail. Matt frowned.

 _I thought she was supposed to be helping out Karima? She still needs to prepare, going by her still-tattered clothes._

Once he had armed himself, he was going to go after Gaige. She _couldn't_ talk with Caine.

 _Shouldn't._ He corrected.

* * *

The Mechromancer was slightly nervous about what she was going to do. However, she was careful not to show it as the girl nodded to Friedman. Trying to talk to Caine may not be the best idea, but it was all she could do right now to help. So Gaige wasted no time in approaching the cell, opening the door and pulling up a chair.

The cell was surprisingly roomy, and there was enough space to be a 1.5m distance between the cell door and Caine's shackled seat.

The Gemini Vault Hunter looked up, rustling the chains as he moved. At first, he said nothing, and just stared with fiery eyes. Eventually, he finally spoke up, realising the girl was not going to just leave if he remained silent.

'What do you want?' He demanded, with his voice gruff and insincere.

'Information,' Gaige replied.

'Forget it. If Anomo couldn't get through to me, what chance do you have?' The Mechromancer ignored him.

' _Anomo?_ So that's what you call him?'

'I'm impartial to "Abomination" too, though.' It took every bit of willpower for her not to lash out then and there and slap him.

'What do you know of the Vault?' She pressed.

'Nothing I care to share.'

'Aren't you a military person? Didn't they teach you to follow orders?'

'They also taught me how to deal with interrogations.' The Mechromancer sighed quietly; she had not expected this to go easy. 'Hm.' Uncertain, she looked up. There was sense of humour in that.

'What?'

'According to Dahl, I don't follow orders,' Caine vaguely reminisced.

'Huh?' Gaige suddenly had a flashback, remembering this man's previous words.

 _"_ _Some of us get rejected for not doing as asked. Some of us get thrown away when we aren't useful anymore. Some of us get punished for doing the right thing."_

'Before the Gemini Corporation, I used to work for Dahl,' Caine revealed. 'Kind of ironic considering Gemini hates Dahl.'

'I fail to see the point of this.' The Explosions Master ignored her.

'There was this mission once. We had to go in and raid some Tediore Exclusive stronghold.' Tediore Exclusives were purest soldiers that formed an aggressive faction of Tediore. 'They'd prepared for us, though. With a bomb. We managed to get everyone out, but there was this one dude trapped in a locked room. So I got him out.'

'So?' Gaige prompted, although still disinterested.

'The guy was an Exclusive. Dahl did not like that I helped one of them all too much, so they terminated my position as one their head soldiers. And "termination" means "execution" for them. Luckily I escaped.'

That at least explained the Vault Hunter's fascination with explosions and bombs. Since that experience, he must have been wondering how to replicate such incidents, but instead to Dahl – to spite them.

Gaige did not dare break the long silence that followed, but instead she stared at Caine. There was notable sadness in his voice, which invoked sympathy and empathy from her. She knew what it was like to be on the run when it wasn't altogether your fault.

She began reaching a hand towards him, probably to put a hand on him and comfort him. Perhaps Caine wasn't too bad.

 _Perhaps Matt was just misjudging him…_ The Mechromancer considered. _He tried to do the right thing after all…_

She was midway through pulling out her hand when Matt suddenly appeared down the stairs. Noticing what his girlfriend was about to do, he activated Chronokinesis and slowed time. With lightning crackling and energy surging, the Anomaly ran between the two and grabbed Gaige's arm and pulled it back, right before it could reach Caine. Time then took normal passage.

'Matt!' She called, visibly startled. 'I was just –'

'I _told_ you not to talk to him!'

'But…you're misjudging him! Caine's just misunderstood, you know?! He tried doing the right thing once, and got scolded for it.'

'So he told you about his last mission for Dahl?' The Anomaly surmised, sighing when Gaige nodded. 'No doubt he changed the words a bit…what did he tell you?'

She hesitantly repeated the story Caine had said to her.

'That mission wasn't a raid! It was an assassination!' The Vault Hunter elucidated, leaving her speechless. 'I was there! I was doing some undercover field work of my own: solo. Dahl was there to take out a Tediore Exclusive who had murdered several operatives from Gemini, Dahl and Hyperion, _and_ had tried to screw them over.'

'What…?'

'Hyperion planted a bomb, and _then_ , without any warning, attacked the place so they would be distracted from the real threat. That guy you mentioned was locked in a POW cell _by_ Hyperion. _Caine_ got him out. And that guy? He was the Tediore Exclusive they were looking for! And Caine helped him escape!'

'Is this… _true?'_ Gaige inquired, turning to look at the chained Vault Hunter. He didn't say anything.

'So when Dahl and the rest discovered he had helped their target escape – despite knowing _full well_ he was the enemy – they discharged him from their ranks!'

She could not utter any more words.

'That's when Gemini took him in,' Matt finished, before growing even more pissed at her. 'I _said_ he was manipulative. If you had touched him, he would've knocked you out with a head-butt and used the tech in your arm to escape.

 _'_ _I_ didn't misjudge _anything_. I _know_ Caine Brooke, and I understand him better than you. So don't try and tell _me_ that _I_ have been looking at things wrong.' His girlfriend assumed a remorseful stance.

'Pathetic Anomo…you're always ruining everything…' Brooke muttered, but they both ignored him.

'Sorry Matt,' Gaige apologised. Her lover sighed and put a hand on her shoulder.

'It's alright. Most people would've fallen for his charade,' he reassured her. 'Anyway, don't you need to go help Karima out?'

'Oh my god! Yes! I forgot!' She fretted, putting a hand to head in stress.

Matt jerked his head to the stairs, to tell her to go prepare and leave in out the door. As the Mechromancer nodded, she rushed off to get ready. Gaige was hallway up the stairs when she stopped and looked back at Matt.

'You owe me a date later.' The Vault Hunter winked at him, before hurrying off. The Anomaly blushed for a nanosecond, but returned to his regular state. Matt turned back to Caine.

'I'd be lying if I said I was surprised that you would go for such a low blow,' he said to him.

'I don't care,' Caine muttered bitterly. 'I am _not_ giving you information.'

'What? Like the Vault needs an energy source to open?' The explosive Hunter looked up at him.

'How did you know that? Who told you that?' Caine demanded. Matt opted not to explain it through precognition, seen as though his rival was not aware that he was a pseudo-Siren.

'You just did,' he claimed, choosing a more vague approach.

'Shit,' the Gemini Vault Hunter susurrated. Regardless of whether or not Matt knew beforehand or had merely guessed, he had already confirmed it.

His "stay" here was getting more difficult by the second, and Caine Brooke did not like that at all.

* * *

 **Things are certainly getting tense around here. I wanted to play on the idea of Caine being a manipulator, and I feel like I haven't delivered on that enough, so I decided to add the scene in which he manipulates Gaige. It also harkens back to the first chapter when Matt said that, if the two met, then Caine would easily manipulate her.**

 **I still haven't revealed what the Vault Monster is or what the name of it is (and therefore the Vault's name), but that will come at the end of the story (obviously). And in case you're wondering, this story will end when the Vault is vanquished. I suppose I** ** _could_** **write a sequel, but there wouldn't be much of a point.**


	17. All I Need is One

**I write fast. Did I mention that? Helps when you plan it out too.**

 **So, this chapter is going to kick off the plot thread that will lead to the final plot line of them actually taking down the Vault in person. What happens in this thread will lead onto the next one.**

 ** **You know, I actually wonder that anyone of the people who are reading this story actually read the bold author text. I dunno. For anyone skipping this to read the actual story (which is fine), here you go.****

* * *

 **Chapter Seventeen: All I Need is One**

* * *

The Mechromancer stood impatiently in front of Karima's door as she explained what she wanted of Gaige and the necessary equipment she intended to provide her.

'O-Overlook can go invisible n-now. However, the capacitor's been sh-short-circuited. Take this capacitor and r-replace some of the components that got fried.'

'Sure thing, Karima,' she agreed, sighing a little. Gaige was still scolding herself for ignoring Matt's warning about Caine. The man knew how to shape emotions like clay, and the girl had fallen for it. The explosive Vault Hunter had proven his dishonesty.

Reluctantly, she climbed up the clock tower, remembering that the shield had been activated while connected to it. It wasn't necessarily a clock tower, more a sustaining pillar, but Dave was no longer around to complain about it either.

Gaige could get a decent view of the small town from atop the steps by the ladder. The Grinder's inner workings could be made out from there, and she got slightly paranoid that she might drop something in it by accident.

'The shield is j-just ahead of you,' Karima pointed out, her harsh tone indicating her frustration with her Skull Shivers.

'I got it.'

The Mechromancer carefully took apart the shield, revealing components and circuitry laid across a motherboard. The battery and generator were still intact, luckily, but the limiter was destroyed. Not to mention the capacitor was burnt and the cooler system had overheated. It seemed like the pressure from the attack of the Taurus ship had the shield working overtime.

Repairs weren't going to be difficult for a tech genius with replaceable parts. So Gaige immediately got to work, carefully unplugging wires to the destroyed shield constituents so that they would not damage wires when electricity surged through. Temporarily, she took out the battery so there was no chance the shield would incidentally switch on. Gaige replaced the limiter first, since the cooling system would fail if it rose to room temperature by being exposed to air. Once that was finished, the Vault Hunter replaced the cooling, carefully syncing up the wires so an electric shock would not occur.

 _Well, that was easy,_ she thought triumphantly, closing up the casing around the circuit board. Gaige ECHO'd to Karima to tell that she was done, prompting the woman to switch it back on remotely.

Jumping down into central Overlook, the Mechromancer smiled as she observed a familiar blue-white bubble envelop over the town.

'Overlook shield is f-fully operational,' Karima announced happily, not even paying attention to her stuttering. 'I want to test the sh-shield's invisibility, too. If you would kindly step out of Overlook, that would be lovely.'

'OK.' Gaige walked down by the fence that marked the edge of Overlook, and down past the Catch-A-Ride. She briefly glanced at Holy Spirits, remembering how Matt had once mentioned that he was good friends with Mick Zaford, but definitely not a Zaford.

Momentarily, she batted an eye over to the Stalker nest just adjacent to Overlook. Upon observation, the Vault Hunter got flashes of when she was cornered by bandits who had followed her from the Dust some months ago. Gaige also remembered that it was where she had met the Anomaly, Matt Rye. It seemed so long ago now. Back then, the girl felt like a different person. And perhaps so was Matt.

'Going invis…n-now,' her Overlook friend marked. She turned around to view Overlook. It now looked much like it would have before the town was built upon, as though it had been left untouched.

'Looks like it's working, Karima,' the Mechromancer confirmed, stepping back through the shield, revealing Overlook intact within. 'Helios's moonshots shouldn't be able to target you anymore.'

'P-perfect!' She exclaimed enthusiastically. 'Come back promptly for your due payment.' Gaige wasn't too sure about taking money from her for repairing damage that _they_ caused, but Karima had her mind made up about it, and she was a _very_ determined woman.

Walking up through Overlook, Gaige heard movement, but assumed it was merely Stalkers that were trying to sneak up on her once they had noticed her presence outside of Overlook. Good thing the shield would keep 'em out.

A holographic projection of Karima appeared over the door, and the tray slid out to reveal $2.5k. Albeit reluctantly, the Mechromancer took it. Maybe she could buy a new weapon with it, although the stuff inside the gun vendors weren't always too incredible.

'Th-thank you for your help.'

'Yeah, I don't know if I should be taking your money, though. It was us who caused all the damage.'

'Nonsense. It was G-Gemini, not you.'

'Ok, if you insist, but –' Gaige was interrupted by the sound of footsteps some few metres behind her. She spun around. 'Who's there?' The girl was met by eerie silence, and it came clear to her that someone was hiding in the shadows. 'Come out! _NOW!'_

'W-who's there?' Karima repeated.

Cautiously, the Vault Hunter stared at her surroundings, attempting to detect any proof of movement. It seemed that, among the uninviting silence, the only movement was the grass swaying slightly in the wind.

Suddenly, a man stepped out from the shadows. He had irregular silver hair, with black tips at the end, and darker silver eyebrows. They reflected the Pandoran Sun's light off of it, shining prettily in the daylight. His clothes consisted of dark grey overalls, with slight padding under them. Over his chest, there was a large number "2" sewn into his uniform. Additionally, there was a small symbol over his left breast pocket, in the shape of a diamond rhombus with a shiny G in the centre.

 _Gemini?!_ Gaige realized shockingly.

'Who are you and why are you here?' She demanded. The man merely pulled out an assault rifle and began firing.

'Target sighted,' the man claimed, although she did not hear him.

The Mechromancer ducked into the corner to avoid the bullets, and then took out her Jakobs Gatling gun. Jumping out into the open, the Vault Hunter fired a few times before pressing a button her metal arm.

'Super Robot Violence Fun Time!' Gaige declared, while digistructing Deathtrap. 'Grind 'im into dust, DT!' Her D374-TP bot flew quickly towards the mysterious, attacking him while she fired back for support.

 _Who the hell IS this guy?_ She speculated, as she hit the man a few times. _Where did he come from?_

'Karima! How the _hell_ did this guy get into Overlook?!' The Mechromancer demanded.

'He must've gotten through while the sh-shield was down!'

'Shit!' Gaige emphasised, withdrawing from cover.

The man was still fighting Deathtrap, but once he noticed the Vault Hunter pull out from cover, he concentrated his fire on her while dodging her robots movements. Several of his bullets hit her, but the Gemini employee stopped firing as his enemy's shield dropped to below 30%. Once she realised that the guy was no longer firing on her, she started cheering.

'Noob!' She ridiculed, pointing and giggling a little. 'You couldn't even take down my shield!' However, her opponent only smirked. Her eyes widened upon realisation of his plan. Deathtrap immediately changed course and flew back to her, floating elegantly on its Arc-X aero-jets, and held its hand out to restore her shield.

This new elongated distance between him and the robot gave the Gemini man time to fire on the bot and damage it enough so that it was forced to dedigistruct.

'OK, maybe you _are_ a bit of a pro…' The Mechromancer thought aloud. The man fired accurately on her, breaking through her shield. Gaige began to bolt back to cover, but her adversary fired on her legs, which caused her to collapse.

The grey-haired stranger rushed up to her and held her in a lock.

'Two.'

'Huh?' The female Vault Hunter questioned.

'My designation is Two.'

 _What kind of name is "Two"? Who thinks it's a good idea to name their child after a number? Oh…wait a minute…there IS Zer0, though._

Gaige pretended to ignore him, and broke out of his hold despite the bullet wounds in her legs restricting her movement. She ran towards him, but detected something was behind her. Spinning around, the girl saw a woman wearing similar overalls as Two, but with 4 instead of 2. Four – she guessed her name was – smacked the back of her head with the butt of her gun and knocked her out.

'Good work, Four,' Two congratulated. Four held up her hand to her ECHOear and tapped it with two fingers.

'Commander? We have acquired one of the targets, but failed to find the others.'

'That's fine,' Sharp's voice came back. 'I only need one of them.'

* * *

Matt supposed he should've been laughing right now, as Aurora Lux's parents continued to reminisce on past, humorous, events. The Anomaly was sitting on the couch in the living room of his and Aurora's house.

'…And then she collided – face first – into the doorframe!' Mrs Lux exclaimed, holding a hand to her mouth to lessen the volume of her chuckle.

'She was in stitches for days!' Mr Lux added.

' _Mooooom! Daaaaad!'_ Aurora whined. He did not pay too much attention to their conversation, instead staring at the two ECHOears on the glass coffee table in front of him.

'Huh, yeah,' Matt pretended to laugh.

'You all right?' Aurora asked. She was sitting next to him on the couch, opposite her parents in two chairs.

'Hm? I'm fine.'

'You just seem… _tense._ ' The anomalous Vault Hunter held his hand up to her dismissively.

'It's nothing. I just need a drink.' Matt got up, and walked towards the kitchen. As he passed the stairs, memories of his incapacitation in bed flashed in his mind for a moment. The Anomaly strode over to the sink and took out a glass, filling it with water. He took a one large gulp, and guzzled it down, slamming it down on the dashboard. He leaned on the kitchen top.

Truth be told, Matt was _not_ fine. His moments to himself had given him time to think. The prophecy that he had been shown about the Vault was something that shook him up more than he had realised. It had felt so… _real._ Seeing his friends being murdered was imprinted on his brain, and drew attention to the Vault Monster.

Additionally, Matt wasn't so certain whether or not that was a potential future, or _the_ future.

 _So if that could happen, is the Vault even worth hunting to begin with?_ He worriedly thought. _Will we even survive it?_

The Anomaly also wasn't totally sure if the vision was true, or if it was just his subconscious making up stuff as it went along. Vividness aside, Matt could not hide that something was on his mind. Aurora was his best friend, and she caught onto him quite easily.

Not to mention Caine was going to be a problem. Apparently, he wanted some Eridian artefact stored in the Vault and presumably protected by the Vault Monster. From what the premonition had shown to him, it granted great power, but the full extent of that power was unknown to him.

For once in long while, Matt was truly scared in every inch of his being. He was more scared than when he was when his PTSD was set off. The last time true terror in his life was when his sister was murdered, and that was due to his helplessness at the time.

 _If I had the powers I do now, maybe I could've saved Amelia…no. I can't think like that._

These conflicting thoughts had only now come to the forefront of his mind, and it was really bothering him. Matt didn't know if or when he should tell his friends about what he saw. Gaige was so excited about the Vault despite knowing of his dream, but telling all of them they were likely to die due to a vision of the future would likely only serve to lower morale. And the Anomaly hated nothing more than being the reason behind others worrying. He hated worrying in general, but it was hard not to given the circumstances.

'Matty?' A voice called behind him. Aurora. Matt only briefly moved his head to acknowledge her presence, but remained mostly deep in thought. She put a hand on his shoulder. 'Something tells me this is more than just dehydration.'

'Mm,' her friend primitively concurred.

'What's going on?' She asked. 'Tell me what's on your mind.'

'Nothing. It's just –'

'Don't _bullshit_ me, Matt,' Aurora interrupted him. The male Vault Hunter sighed deeply.

'If I'm being honest…I'm scared. I'm frightened beyond almost anything I have ever experienced before. The Vault houses secrets clandestine to surrounding observers. And I'm uncertain what we'll find in it. I said before – the future is veiled path spanning numerous possibilities. We can't be so jumping-off-the-walls about it like Gaige, because we don't know the threat that lies in wait ahead of us. The unknown is what terrifies me the most. The only time I've ever been so afraid was…with my sister.' Aurora put her hand on his.

'It's part of life to be afraid, Matt. What matters is how you come to terms with it.'

'I've been wondering how dangerous Vault Hunting really is. Risking your life every day…I don't know if it's worth it anymore.'

'You're not quitting on me are you?' Questioned the young woman, growing even more fretful.

'Of course not. Recently, though, I've been put in situations where I easily could've died more than I ever have before.'

'I get it if what you went through has had some _lasting_ effects on you,' Aurora guided, tightening her grip on his fingers. 'And I will _never_ understand the pain you experienced. I'll probably never know the feeling of having your spine smashed, but…you're one of the strongest people I know, Matty. If anyone's living, it's you.' The Anomaly shook his head, knowing that he had not told his best friend everything.

'It's just…it's not so much I'm afraid of dying myself. I'm scared of everyone I _care about_ dying.'

'What's gotten you like this, Matt? You were fine earlier,' the Revolverslinger queried, worry so clear in her eyes.

Matt was at crossroads.

Remaining silent, he was endlessly questioning himself as to whether or not the truth should come out. The Anomaly touched on the idea of talking about his vision, but for almost every argument for it, and argument against it formulated in his head.

Aurora deserved to know the truth, but she wouldn't have wanted to hear it.

Telling her would help get it out, but then he would be dumping his emotions on her.

Matt could inform her about the future, but that would serve to distract her.

It was not as simple as just revealing this to her.

'Matt. _Look_ at me,' she ordered, and the Anomaly turned to her. The woman was taken aback by the absolute trepidation in his eyes. _'Tell me the truth.'_ The Vault Hunters exchanged looks of concern. The young man did not seem to want to keep the truth from her, but some invisible hand was keeping his mouth shut.

Gaige was the only one he had told about it, but even then, he had not told her every detail. He had not brought up the artefact in the Vault, nor had he mentioned that it was a forewarning, not a mere dream. Sirens didn't have dreams like that. Definitely not ones that wouldn't mean anything.

'I had another premonition,' the Anomaly confessed, before he stop himself from blurting it out. 'Like a…nightmare.'

'What happens in the nightmare?' She enquired carefully.

'Everybody _dies,_ Aurora,' Matt disclosed. 'It was about the future. We were in the Vault, and…everyone was killed by the Vault Guardian or to Caine. _He_ got this…artefact that he was looking for, and we failed to come out of it alive.'

'I…' Aurora was initially speechless, but she threw her arms around him. 'That must've been horrible to see.'

'So now I'm worried if that'll come true.'

'No,' the Revolverslinger objected, surprising him. 'You can't allow yourself to be so worried all the time. Think about it. That…vision…is less of a prophecy, and more like a "what not to do" in that situation, right?'

'You're talking about actively preventing this from happening?' The Anomaly realised, to which his best friend nodded. 'But what if, by trying to prevent it, I accidently cause it to occur anyway?'

'Now you're just being paranoid,' she advised him.

'I know. Can you blame me, though?'

'No. However, I _do_ think that you shouldn't be worried, though. There is _no_ way that is going to happen. Not a chance. When we get to the Vault, we'll be prepared. I swear to you that what you saw will _not_ happen, OK?' Aurora pledged.

'Is that a promise?' Matt inquired cheekily.

'You bet,' Aurora ensured, detaching from him, and then beckoning him back to the living room. 'C'mon. My parents are waiting for us.'

'Yeah.' The two walked back to the living room, where Mr and Mrs Lux were still laughing, presumably over another memory they'd revisited. Both of them sat back down and all seemed to have returned to normal.

For about five seconds.

The Anomaly suddenly got a call from his ECHOear, the ringtone softly broadcasting on the table. He picked it up and put it in his ear.

'Uh, sorry, I'm gonna have to take this,' Matt announced, standing up and answering the call. He listened to the voice on the other end. 'What?!' His exclamation caused Aurora to jump. 'No…no, there's no way!'

'What is it, Matty?' She wondered, but her question was not answered immediately.

'Thanks for calling, Karima. I'll be there immediately,' the Vault Hunter concluded, tapping his finger to his ECHOear. 'Gaige's in trouble. Bring everyone to Overlook.' Lightning crackled around Matt's limbs, energy swirling around his arms. Within less than a microsecond, he was gone.

Aurora Lux instantly bolted out of the house to find her fellow Vault Hunters, avoiding the probing questions from her parents.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Anomaly wasted no time making his way to Overlook, using his Chronokinesis to make it there as fast as he could.

The Anomaly appeared in Overlook, and then turned to his left. He saw Two and Four, loading an unconscious Gaige onto a Gemini jump ship.

Instantaneously, he reactivated his powers, slowing time as he ran towards them. However, Four was faster with her reaction, and she fired a laser at him. It electrocuted him, and Matt fell to the ground. Unless he was somehow able to stop time again, there was no way he was going have dodged that laser, when it had taken him by surprise and was firing at the speed of light.

Two then took out a pistol and fired a bullet at the Anomaly's shoulder to keep him mostly incapacitated.

Ignoring the pain, Matt ran towards them, his Chronokinesis temporarily disabled. Two and Four had finished loading the Mechromancer onto the ship, and they moved into the pilots' seats. Once he finally made it to the jump ship, it was gearing to fly off. The Anomaly reached out a hand to touch it, to do something, _anything._

However, he was thrown back as the ship blasted off into the atmosphere, phasing through Overlook's shield, clearly en route to Elpis.

As Matt hopelessly stared at the ship while it flew away hundreds of times faster than sound, he could sense the presence of his fellow Vault Hunters. He knew they were close behind him.

Taking a few deep breaths, the Anomaly roared. 'NOOOOOOOOOOOO!' He roared until his throat went sore. The pure fury and anguish in it took his friends by surprise, as they had never seen him _this_ angry before. Not even Aurora had witnessed him be so wrathful.

Black and crimson lightning erupted from Matt's body, becoming more and more powerful by the second. The lightning was so prominent that it began to zap the grass, and burn it. A giant shockwave of red energy exploded outwards from him, creating a sizeable earthquake that almost knocked the Vault Hunters off their feet.

'Matt…?' Aurora called, walking towards him. The sheer force of him almost prevented her from reaching him. She tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but as soon as she did, the woman winced and retracted it in pain. Aurora stared at her hand, which was now burnt, and black in some areas.

The Anomaly turned his head slightly to look at her. Pure rage and turmoil was all that was present in his eyes, and the look of genuine anger almost scared her. Blood was leaking out of his mouth and nose, while one single tear of blood ran its way down the young man's cheek. Sparks of lightning flashed around his blood.

Clearly not thinking straight, Matt clenched his fists much harder, causing his aura of crimson energy to strengthen even further. Another shockwave was emitted from his body, creating a red sphere of energy to be released again. It was several times more powerful than the previous one. Sheer force alone meant it shattered Overlook's shield almost instantly. Slowly, the sphere of blood-red power dissipated and faded, but the aura remained.

His eyes began leaking black energy, as his eyeballs turned black. Black bolts of lightning lashed out and zapped Aurora, but she refused to move backwards. Other bolts threatened to light the entirety of Overlook on fire, nearing ever closer to the buildings.

'Matt!' Lilith addressed, going into Phasewalk to get closer to him. However, some invisible force catapulted her back into to the real domain. She landed beside her friends. Maya tried to do something similar, attempting to Phaselock Matt. Unfortunately, it did not seem to affect him at all. In fact, it was as if the Anomaly had not noticed that she had even attempted to do such a thing.

 _So THIS is what happens when you piss Matt Rye off…_ Maya thought.

'Listen, Matty!' Aurora demanded beside him. 'All is not lost! We can get Gaige back! You don't need to act like you're alone anymore, because we're right here!' The Anomaly finally made some kind of indication of his normal self, clearly having heard her words. Slowly but surely, the glow faded, and the Anomaly assumed a more regular stance.

It took a while before the lightning faded too, and it still continued to burn the ground where he was standing. Similarly, it took some time before Overlook's shield recharged and regenerated.

Matt finally turned around, blood still dripping from several of his face's orifices. He took some more deep breaths to calm his nerves, as Aurora rubbed his shoulder with her non-burnt hand to comfort him.

'Sorry…I lost my nerve there for a moment,' he apologised. He then noticed her burnt hand. 'Oh my god! Did _I_ do that to you? I'm sorry!'

'It's OK, it's nothing serious,' she assured, but then stood back for a second and noticed a wound in his shoulder. 'Did they _shoot_ you?'

'It's fine, just got caught off-guard by Two and Four…'

' _Two_ and _Four_ did that? You know, I am really starting to wish Commander Sharp didn't have so many in-commands. Two, Three, Four, Five _and_ Six…' Her voice trailed off.

'Matt…' Lilith finally spoke. 'That aura you just showed just now…what even _was_ that?'

'I dunno,' the Anomaly admitted. 'I know my Chronokinesis causes an explosion of energy to be emitted from my body, but I've _never_ experienced it _that_ much.' Suddenly, he lost his balance and fell, but Aurora caught him.

'I can tell by the excessive amount of blood leaking from you that you just pushed your powers to a whole new limit,' Axton observed.

'You could smash the Warrior into a pulp! HAHAHA!' Brick chuckled, despite being the only one finding that joke funny.

'This is not over / Gaige is certainly not lost / And they have not won,' Zer0 confirmed.

'Guys?' A voice called out. Karima. 'That unconstrained d-duo dead-locked our doors! Can you h-help us out here?'

'Just a second, Karima, I'm coming,' Axton assured her, walking over to the Overlook power grid and messing around with the controls a bit until the doors unlocked.

'T-thanks.'

'We should get you back to Sanctuary to patch both of you up,' Maya ordered.

'Then we're going after Gaige, right, amiga?' Mordecai questioned, to which she and Lilith both nodded.

'And there'll be things to shoot!' Salvador exclaimed pointedly, excited to be killing more enemies.

'Damn right,' Matt agreed, with the groaning and pain in his voice evident. The Anomaly may have failed to have reached Gaige moments ago, but he wasn't about to let her stay kidnapped for long.

* * *

Once he had dropped the shrapnel into a metal plate, Zed wrapped a bandage around the bullet wound in Matt's shoulder. It made a tinging sound as it landed on the plate.

'I tell you, son, you really need to be careful with what you get yourself into!' Doctor Zed advised.

'I know, I know,' the Anomaly insisted, not really paying much attention to what he was saying. The doctor moved over to Aurora, and applied some cream anaesthetic around her sizzled hand. She winced when it made contact.

'And you too, young lady!' Zed continued. 'You can't be going off and burning your hand!'

'Sorry, doctor,' Aurora apologised, flinching again as the man wrapped her hand in bandages.

'No, _I'm_ sorry, 'Ora,' the Anomaly corrected. 'It was _me_ who did that to you.'

'Unintentionally!' Aurora objected.

'I wasn't like I was out of it, or anything. It was actually the opposite. I was acutely aware of my surroundings, I knew you were there; I knew when Lilith was Phasewalking; I knew when Maya was trying to Phaselock me. And I _still_ hurt you.'

'No, you _weren't_ focussed. Gaige – your girlfriend – was kidnapped moments ago,' she reminded him. 'No one's going to blame you if you're _upset_ about it.'

'I know,' Matt concluded. 'But right now, I can't afford to be worried. I have to do something about it.' He got up, and lent out a hand. 'Coming?'

'Where?'

'I'm gonna talk to that Scooter guy about rockets,' he enlightened.

'He builds cars, not rockets,' Aurora deadpanned.

'Well, it isn't _that_ much of a stretch,' the Anomaly reasoned humorously. His best friend finally took his hand with her non-bandaged right hand, and Matt lifted her off the hospital bed.

'Are you going to be holding my hand the whole time?' Aurora nervously asked, blushing marginally.

'What, you're already so anxious to disconnect with me?' Matt joked, but she took it seriously.

'No! Of course not! It's, um…the opposite, actually. I like the feeling of your hand, that's all…'

'Well, if you _really_ want to, then that's fine, I guess,' Matt supposed, tightening his grip a little more. They both stepped out of Doctor Zed's clinic and made a right, making a slow descent down the steps towards Scooter's garage.

Aurora looked at him, and thoughts and memories began flooding into her mind. The pure fury on his face had been frightening to behold; the power exhibited was directly proportional to this. The Revolverslinger had admitted to herself that she had not once seen Matt get so mad, even after all that had happened to him prior to the moment. Likewise, the power of his Chronokinesis was off the scale, and was so far beyond anything shown by him in the past.

All over a girl that he'd only known for a month and a half. Granted, they _were_ dating, so that reaction was normal, but it made her wonder.

 _If I was kidnapped, how would he react then?_ She didn't want to say that Matt would get even angrier, or any more powerful than when Gaige was taken – the question was still viable, though.

'You OK, 'Ora?' Matt asked, snapping her out of her contemplation. She realised she'd stopped walking.

'What would you do if _I_ was kidnapped?' The female Vault Hunter inquired morbidly. The Anomaly froze, completely taken off-guard by the question.

'I…'

'Would you go crazy like with Gaige?'

'I…I don't know, Aurora,' the Anomaly admitted. 'But I'd rather _not_ think about another person being taken.' She looked at him dejectedly, wishing that she hadn't asked.

'I just don't want you to be brooding all the time.' Matt put his hands on her shoulders.

'Relax, 'Ora. I have no doubt in the world that we'll find Gaige. Besides, she's a strong girl, I'm sure that whatever Gemini is doing to her, she's fighting through it.'

* * *

Gaige the Mechromancer coughed. She couldn't register if it was a blood splatter or saliva that had flown out of her mouth.

It was dark. The blackness feasted and festered in their squalor, and she was not altogether certain she could last for much longer.

The last thing the Vault Hunter remembered was the dynamic duo, Two and Four, dragging her onto their ship after they had engaged in a serious round of pwnage. Sure, it was hazy, but the girl had _some_ kind of perception of it. For a single second, the Mechromancer could've sworn that she had heard a loud bellow, but she was too weak at the time to strain to hear it.

Gaige wasn't sure where she was. The Gemini Corporation definitely had a hand in it, obviously. Two and Four worked for them. She shook her limbs, and heard gentle rustling of metal. Only then did the Vault Hunter realise that she was chained up. Her nerves were so weak she didn't feel it before, not to mention the utter darkness masked her imprisonment further.

A door opened in front of her, bringing in blinding, unwelcoming light onto Gaige's battered and damaged body. Her pupils contracted to shield against it, and her instincts forced her eyelids shut. Once her eyes adapted to it, she opened them again.

'Excellent, you're awake,' commented someone happily. She looked up to the owner of the voice, Commander James Sharp. The girl recognised the voice from Gemini's attempted siege on Overlook. 'I'm sure you know who I am. I am Commander Sharp, leader of the Gemini military battalion. And _I_ happen to know who _you_ are, _Gaige_.'

'What do you want from me?' The Mechromancer immediately demanded.

'I desire nothing from you. I only call for Mr Rye's return.'

'If you think you're getting Matt, then you're more fucked in the head than I initially thought.'

'Such a vulgar tone!' Sharp replied, feigning being insulted. 'And don't assume the Anomaly _won't_ come back here. After all, I just kidnapped his girlfriend.' Gaige hesitated, not necessarily wanting to neither confirm nor deny that statement.

'And where is "here" exactly?' The female Vault Hunter enquired.

'Lima Base One. On Elpis. Welcome to Gemini.'

'Matt's going to hurt you for what you've done,' she insisted. 'You ain't getting away scot-free.'

'Give it time and that willpower shall break. Then you'll give up on Mr Rye, and he will come _home_.'

'I can't wait to see how _that_ shit-show plays out,' the girl laughed. James didn't seem too affected by what she just said, and instead beckoned for someone behind the door. A girl with light purple skin and pink hair stepped through, a sadistic expression on her face.

 _That's that "Violet Parker" girl isn't it?_

'Violet, Gaige. Gaige, Violet,' Sharp introduced. 'Miss Parker here will be your torturer. You see, searing hot light tends to hurt _quite a bit._ '

'Yay! This is going to be _so_ fun!' Violet laughed, shooting a beam of light that hit Gaige's shoulder. She cried out in pain, as smoke rose from the wound. Sharp nodded and left the room, flicking on the dim switch to the light.

'You can hurt me all you want, you're not breaking me.'

'I could always bring Dan in here and give you some… _dissatisfying_ images.' The Mechromancer gulped almost comically. 'That's right. _Suffer._ '

Violet grinned psychotically, scraping her fingers across Gaige's arms. As they followed along her limbs, they left a red burn mark. The Vault Hunter gritted her teeth, desperately trying not to scream or cry from the pain. No matter what, the girl was not going to give in.

* * *

 **Wow, that just got really dark. Yeah, I didn't want to make Violet just some girl who was fairly fond of Matt and is actually friendly and would leave if she was aware of Gemini's deception, so I made her a psychotic sadist. That's what I was planning, as there were only hints of it before, but now it's confirmed.**

 **(Not to mention that by saying Matt was "fun" she actually meant that he was just able to inflict a lot of pain, and she admired that.)**

 **Also, I'm trying so hard not to make Matt the Anomaly OP and to balance him. That power show he did when Gaige was kidnapped wasn't something that he can just do by command. It was sheer shock and spur of the moment that sent him into Devil May Care super-cataclysmic attitude. The only thing that's really happened is that he's gained** ** _slightly_** **higher exhaustion tolerance for his Chronokinesis.**

 **I thought about stopping the chapter when Gaige was kidnapped but I realized that the chapter would be too short for my liking if I did that, so I kept writing until I decided to change perspective back to Gaige so you have an idea of what she's going through.**


	18. Close Enough

**So, Chapter Eighteen. It's looking like this might get to thirty. We'll see.**

 **Also, happy 1k views! It's crazy that over ONE THOUSAND** **people have viewed this story. I, of course hope, to get more reviews, but if I do (on the off chance), I don't mind it being very clear and maybe a little harsh. As long as it's constructive, so that I can improve upon it.**

 **Now, uh, sorry if the flow or pacing of this chapter is a bit off, but I wanted to move on with what Gaige is going through, since the torture from Dan and Violet is only the beginning. Furthermore, even though I planned this, I had a little writer's block with Gaige's parts since it was hard not to make her torture seem uninteresting and it was hard to describe. But I got through it!**

 **I had a lot of fun writing this first part, though, because both Scooter and Claptrap are in it! That means a lot of funny interactions between the wildly different personalities of Matt and Aurora compared to Scooter and Claptrap. And about Scooter, I just think it's kinda poignant that when Fiona asked him to help build the rocket, it actually wasn't the first time someone had asked him that.**

 **For now, we're Oscar Mike…**

* * *

 **Chapter Eighteen: Close Enough**

* * *

Scooter scratched his chin at what Matt just asked him, not sure how to react.

'I dunno, man,' he finally responded. 'Rockets aren't really my area, to be honest. Just sayin', I don't know if I can just…make one.' Matt slammed his fist down on the nearby workbench.

 _'_ _Then learn.'_ The sheer aggression and venom in his voice scared Aurora a little. To prove his bark was _not_ louder than his bite, the Anomaly released faint sparks of black and red lightning.

'Matty, c'mon,' the Revolverslinger put an arm on his shoulder, and he calmed down.

'Jeez, man, I'm doing all I can here. You don't think I know 'bout that ole Mechrogirl gettin' captured by some shady corporation?'

'"Mechrogirl" really?' Aurora laughed, but Matt ignored her.

'I know, Scooter. Right now, I can't afford to be worried. I'd rather not wallow in self-pity and instead do something about it.'

'I'm tryin' my best, OK?' The mechanic reassured. Suddenly his face lit up like a light bulb. 'Actually, I don't think I need to build a rocket ship.'

'Why is that?' Aurora pressed.

'I'm pretty sure this Sanctuary has some sorta "jump-ship" ya can send out for recon or whatever.'

'Well this _is_ a Dahl mining ship after all,' the Anomaly pondered. 'Maybe I could ask Axton about it, since –'

'GREETINGS FRIENDS OF FRIENDS!' Yelled an overly-blissful male voice from behind them. Matt spun around to see a CL4P-TP bot, gesturing wildly. 'I HAVE COME TO AID IN THE RESCUE OF MY MECHROMANTIC MINION!'

'Woah! A CL4P-TP bot!' Aurora stood in awe. 'I thought Hyperion destroyed all of these!'

'YOU CAN CALL ME CLAPTRAP!'

'Nice to meet you, Claptrap. Well, at this rate we're going to need all the help we can get,' Matt accepted.

'Just look at him! He's so _cute!'_ Aurora mused, kneeling down next to the bot.

'YOU ARE VERY PRETTY!' Claptrap commented, to which she laughed.

'I'm afraid I'm not looking to getting into relationships right now, Claptrap,' the young woman told him, but the robot seemed unfazed.

'I'm Matt the Anomaly, and that's Aurora the Revolverslinger,' he pointed out. 'We're Vault Hunters.'

'HELLO, VAULT HUNTER! YOU SHALL BE MY ANOMALOUS _MINION!'_ Claptrap claimed excitedly. Matt then decided to get mock-aggressive.

'If you think I'm gonna be your minion,' he began, regaining his aura of crimson and black lightning. 'You got another thing coming, buddy.' His lightning lightly struck Claptrap, and he remained silent for a second.

'I HAVE COME TO A NEW CONCLUSION: YOU WILL _NOT_ BE MY MINION!' Claptrap reworked, still ecstatic.

'Uh-oh,' Scooter joked, 'Claptrap's talking claptrap again…' Silence. 'Oh come on! That was funny!' No one seemed to care.

'And if you try to hit on my best friend again, I will digitally castrate you,' Matt continued.

It was an empty threat, since he didn't know _how_ to program that, but he was certainly convincing enough. Claptrap made a loud gulping sound. Aurora giggled at his overprotectiveness, despite being aware that Matt was half-joking with the aggression.

'UNDERSTOOD, ANOMALY!' He agreed happily. 'ANYWAYS, I HEARD YOU ARE IN NEED OF A ROCKET!'

'We are,' Aurora confirmed. 'Since Gaige has been kidnapped.'

'FEAR NOT! I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT ALL DAHL MINING SHIPS HAVE JUMP-SHIPS TO ROCKET AWAY AHEAD ON EXCAVATION TRIPS!'

'Seriously?!' Matt exclaimed, not quite believing his own luck.

'CONFIRM WITH AXTON. MY MINION WILL KNOW ABOUT IT!'

'Then why hasn't he mentioned it yet?' Aurora inquired, confused.

'Because he doesn't want us to go after her,' Matt realised. 'Recklessness will probably be his excuse, since I know he cares about her. Can't blame him to be honest.'

'But don't we deserve to know?' Aurora reasoned.

'We can ask now,' The anomalous Vault Hunter suggested. He beckoned to her, and the Revolverslinger promptly strolled up to him and took his hand. She realised what she'd just done, and then let go.

'Say hi to Lilly for me, by the way!' Scooter requested, before returning to operate on a husk of one of his Light Runners.

* * *

Gaige could feel her limbs sporadically shaking and twitching in her chained chair. Violet looked at her maniacally, hiding that she was starting to feel tired from using her light powers so much.

'Say something!' Parker demanded, but the Mechromancer instead just looked up at her, not saying a word.

She formed a ball of saliva in her mouth and spat it at Violet. It hit her in the eye, and the Light Bender winced, before taking out a napkin and wiping her face. The Gemini Vault Hunter did not seem to appreciate that all that much.

'Now _that_ was rude,' Violet commented. She shot a beam of light at the side of her arm, burning through a part of her sleeve and leaving a scorched mark behind. Gaige tried to ignore it, but whimpered from the pain.

'Screw you.'

'Look at Little Miss Confident trying to act all brave!' She provoked sadistically. Her manic psychopathy was getting ever annoying. Matt had not mentioned how one of his Vault Hunter allies from Gemini was _this_ insane.

'I will never give up!' She persisted. Violet seemed to look at her perplexedly, tilting her head to the side like she was analysing her.

The Light Bender fought back the urge to vomit at her determination.

Ruthlessly, Parker took both her hands, placed them on opposite sides of Gaige's arm, and bent it in the wrong direction. The Mechromancer screeched in pain as her limb was twisted and the joint almost snapped. With an arm now that was almost broken and very sore, there was little she could do to fight back.

'I like it when you feel pain,' Violet commented, licking her lips to emphasise the apparent pleasure she received from doing this. Gaige could already feel the muscles around the joint of her left arm start to enflame. Now that it was rapidly becoming swollen, it was getting difficult even to merely jerk the top side of her arm.

She thought about saying something, but ultimately decided against it.

'You're getting closer and closer to snapping,' Violet Parker observed. _'I love it.'_

Even then, the Light Bender was surprised that the Mechromancer had said barely anything since she began her torture session. The girl was getting annoyed. And tired. Violet knew by now that she was using her light powers too much.

In many ways, her power worked like a computer. Use it too intensely, and it'll overheat. Try something more complex and you risk it breaking down altogether. Sure, you had a fan too to cool it down, but that took time. And if it was overused too much, then the fan itself would also shut down.

Now, she was acting like she was trying to log in but was typing in the wrong password and may have forgotten it. Like it somehow was out of her control how temperamental Violet's subject was being, and like her incessant attempts were making it seem less and less likely that she would succeed.

 _Back to the chopping block, little girly Gaige._

* * *

Axton was not surprised in the slightest when Matt approached him about spaceships. He'd heard he'd spoken to Scooter and Claptrap about rockets, so the Commando had figured that his "master" would let information slide about Dahl.

However, that didn't mean he wanted to divulge further information about the subject until the man was sure that Matt would not do anything reckless.

The Vault Hunter known as Matt Rye the Anomaly had it in his very title that he wasn't one for normality. While Axton had known him for a while, that didn't mean the young man couldn't be unpredictable in any way. During that period with Matt as his Gemini liaison, he had always been analytically sound. He knew how to assess a situation in a second and how to respond accordingly and reasonably.

Although, the Anomaly's breakdown over Gaige's kidnapping altered that perception slightly. It had given him a new outlook on him. Matt had never shown any breaking point before. Not once had his friend ever gotten so angry in the past. He was always calm; Axton was not.

Simple as that, really.

Apparently not, however. Recently, the Commando had regained his trust in him, but that didn't mean the Anomaly could go off and do what he felt was right with no one to keep an eye on him. Yeah, Maya and Lilith did that as though Matt was their little brother, but that didn't mean Axton couldn't fancy himself as one of his mentors.

Also, it was the dead of night and Axton did not desire for the Anomaly to be staying up so late. He'd mentioned his irregular sleeping patterns, which Gaige had talked about once, so the Commando saw it fit to normalise them so he had more energy in the future.

 _What am I thinking, he's the Anomaly! He's the DEFINITION of abnormal and irregular!_

'I'm not hearing a response there, Ax,' Matt interrupted, breaking him from his thought process. The Commando noted the frustration in his voice.

'Oh, sorry, man,' he apologised briefly, before moving on. 'The answer is yes. I do believe that Dahl Mining Ships have jump-ships for reconnaissance. However, it's not _my_ place to say you can use it. It's –'

'Lilith's. Yeah, we guessed that,' Aurora the Revolverslinger interjected. 'We'll ask her.'

'Before you do that, I want to make sure you aren't planning on doing this on your own.'

'Why wouldn't I be taking everyone?' The Anomaly asked, clearly annoyed at himself.

'Because you're out of your mind worrying,' his ally stated bluntly. Matt suddenly got very angry.

'Now you listen here, Axton: how would _you_ feel if someone _you_ cared about deeply was taken?' When he noticed that the Commando was not going to answer that, he continued. 'Exactly. But you know what? There's no point in worrying all the time and falling into trepidation! I have to _do_ something about it, or Gaige may never return. So _forgive me_ if I happen to be doing all I can to get her back!'

'That's enough, Matt,' Aurora advised. Upon realisation that he'd probably gone too hard on Axton, he calmed down.

'Sorry. Just…lemme do this, OK? I'm planning this out so we won't run in blind.' The Commando looked on at him forlornly and put a hand on his shoulder.

'It's alright, man. We can go ask Lilith now; I highly doubt she'd be against any form of plan since the woman has spent the better part of half an hour trying to come up with a suitable way to save Gaige. My only suggestion is that we wait to enact this plan until tomorrow. We'll need rest – especially you.'

'Thanks Ax.'

'No problem.'

The Anomaly, the Commando and the Revolverslinger quickly made their way to Crimson Raider HQ, where Lilith usually was these days. It was like she never left it, since the Siren was so determined to bring down Hyperion and now Gemini too.

 _Can't blame her for going at this hard, I suppose._

However, the Gemini Corporation wasn't just some evil company with malicious desires that everyone else could observe were unwarranted. They simply wanted to run a monopoly on the galaxy as a whole, trying to uphold ideals of law and order.

Their methods of enacting such a goal were what put them at odds with many, and what bought the allegiance of many others as well. If their goal meant trying to own the entire galaxy, then that's what they'd do.

However, one does not simply _claim_ such a large conglomeration of life-forms such as a galaxy. The Gemini Corporation were undoubtedly massive, larger than Hyperion for sure, although they did not reach that status without the aid of the latter. Despite this, they had not the power neither the influence to, quite literally, _own_ a galaxy. No matter how much time you take to do it.

 _There'd also be uproar about a new organisation running the WHOLE constellation…_

It was people like Matt that meant they _couldn't._ Rebellions were natural. You can't please everyone. Not to mention how the corporation itself isn't known for forbearance in any form.

Further dilemmas would arise even if Gemini _did_ succeed.

Implementing new rules across the galaxy would be difficult. Maintaining them with little crime was next to impossible. As Caine had outlined before, it was simple human nature to oppose. One could not simply show a tabloid of rules and expect everyone to follow them: regardless of whether you had a police force or not.

Another example was the trouble of maintaining an economic structure and managing it. At this current time, different quadrants of the galaxy had their own separate financial balance. While the currency was essentially identical, how it was governed changed, depending on where you were.

So running the entirety of it under one basis would be difficult considering the sheer scale of the galaxy as it is.

And Matt was aware of this.

While the Anomaly wasn't known for his intelligence – nor did he acknowledge it –, the young man could at the very least understand basic problems with uniting a galaxy under one governing body.

The galaxy ran fine as it was. What would be the point in changing it and risking pecuniary collapse? Furthermore, there were unimaginable things Gemini could do with that kind of power; a dystopia was definitely something to avoid, but the company could easily create one.

 _What's that saying? "If it isn't broken, don't fix it"? Yeah, that's right._

This concept was what had always baffled Matt Rye. So it was refreshing to go against. To challenge it.

Wanting to monopolize the entire cluster also meant finding Vaults, and taking the technology inside. They felt like they _owned_ it. To them, it was merely like opening a safety deposit box. In addition, with this Eridian tech, Gemini could revolutionize their businesses and the arms race as a whole. Hardly anyone would want to defy an organisation with _that_ kind of power.

Even with their bold objective, the Gemini Corporation had to keep it secret from most. If people discovered a corporation that was trying to _own_ them, no one would be happy.

 _So can't we just reveal Gemini and let everyone tear it down with us? Well…no._

No one would've believed them for a start.

 _What about providing evidence?_

Still pointless. Spreading that kind of news across the constellation was impossible – _especially_ since the Gemini Corporation can cover it up before it reaches enough people for that to become a threat.

Fighting them head-on in some kind of shadow war was the best option they had. Also, the Crimson Raiders happened to be doing quite well for themselves.

 _We aren't just some insignificant, annoying bug on their shoulders. Our kiddie gloves have long since been taken off._

It was ineffable how badly Matt wanted to see Gemini taken down for what they've done. For what they planned to do. Hyperion paled in comparison.

Even if it was predominantly them who were responsible for his pain. The Genisys Project for a start. The experiment that intended to fuse people with Sirens, but needed to "modify" its subjects first. Like patchwork; picking and choosing what parts you wanted and what parts you didn't, and then practically sewing them together. Improving on things that didn't match expectations, too.

Ignoble intentions.

 _Why do it? To find alternative ways to charge the Vault Key? To do it faster? To CREATE a LIVING Vault Key?_

His silent contemplation was showing, since he wasn't responding when Lilith was calling his name. She waved a hand in front of him, but there was no reaction from the Anomaly. She analysed his eyes, and could see that they were deep in thought. The Siren could see how whatever he was thinking about was something that had crossed his mind a few times.

'Matt…? You in there?' She called. The deepness behind those irises reminded her of his newfound sagaciousness. Aurora shook him by the shoulders, which finally snapped him out of it.

'Sorry I was just…'

'Thinking?' Lilith finished for him. Matt nodded.

'What were you thinking about?' Axton wondered.

'Gemini and their goal.'

'To own the galaxy?' Aurora guessed, to which he gave her a light yes.

'Anyway…so you were asking me about this jump-ship Sanctuary has?' Lilith moved on.

'It's our method to getting to Lima Base One,' Matt explained. 'That's the base that Gemini is likely holding Gaige, since they hold all prisoners there.'

'I've never used a fucking spaceship before, Matt,' the Siren expressed bluntly.

'There's a first time for everything,' Aurora pointed out.

'Jump-ships are usually kept in the lower bowels of a Dahl Mining Ship,' Axton commented.

Lilith put a hand to her chin to consider this for a moment. It was very obvious they were proposing they go on a mission to save Gaige. Matt's eagerness about it didn't surprise her, given how close the two had gotten over the past few months.

The Anomaly's knowledge of the Gemini Corporation would be priceless in such a situation. He was aware of their tactics, their technology, how they ran things. Having him there was required, but wouldn't the corporation know that? Could it be a trick? Was paranoia unjustified here? Rushing to save Gaige could be reckless but…what other option did they have?

 _We can't just sit around and wait! Gaige could be killed…or worse…!_ The Siren worriedly thought.

'Do show the way, Axton,' Lilith finally agreed.

 _I can't imagine what they're doing to her right now…_

* * *

Her dad and mom stood in front of her, staring at her, displeased. Her father stepped forward, crossing his arms discontentedly.

'I'm _incredibly_ disappointed in you, young lady,' her parent commented, dissatisfaction evident in his tone. 'You've _killed_ people. That is _never_ justified. Once you take a life, you stop being human.'

'When was the first time you murdered someone?' Her mother asked, quite rhetorically. Her child answered anyway.

Gaige felt she had to.

'Y-you know…I didn't mean it…it wasn't my fault.'

'What did it tell you?! Not to lie to people? Especially not yourself!' Her dad shot back angrily.

'S-shut up…'

'Don't give your father any backchat, young lady!' Her mother cautioned.

'No.'

'What did you say?' Her father demanded.

'You aren't real.'

'I'm real enough to teach you a lesson!' He replied.

'Go on, then,' Gaige taunted, looking up and smirking. _'Do it.'_ Immediately, the figures of her parents glitched out like code, and split apart into lines of code.

'How peculiar. You broke past my holograms,' claimed an impressed voice. A man stepped out, and turned the lights on in the room.

'Dan, isn't it? Aurora's cousin?' the Mechromancer guessed.

'That's me. Ever so pleased to meet you, the girl who helped draw Matt's attention away from Gemini,' Dan bitterly responded.

She sighed. _Why does EVERYONE Matt used to know about Gemini have to be a crackpot? Or someone WAY too friendly with him?_

This imprisonment was eerily similar to that of Caine's at Sanctuary. That resemblance rocked her to the core, and she certainly did not like it. No doubt, they expected Matt to take precautions such as chains with imprisonment, allowing them to replicate it. Maybe they were trying to prove a point. Give her a taste of her own medicine.

It wasn't really working, if they were trying to use it to "break" her. More or less, it annoyed her. Vain attempts like these made Gaige want to point and laugh at the Gemini Corporation. The Mechromancer's will wasn't a twig you could just take with two hands, bend and then snap. She didn't depend on Matt; Matt didn't depend on her. Being without him didn't affect her too much; she just hoped that the Anomaly was taking it well enough on his end.

Although, she didn't expect the Anomaly to be completely unaffected by her kidnapping. However, if she knew him well enough, Matt wasn't going to be moping around but would instead be working hard to save her.

Gaige knew she could survive the insane bashings from Violet Parker, and the holographic images from Dan.

Or anything they threw at her.

'Don't you think that's a _little_ harsh?' The Vault Hunter snidely enquired to his prior comment. Dan just laughed.

'Commander Sharp believes your will is admirable at best. I can see you're using deprecation to mask your fear.'

'It sounds like _you're_ desperate to get me to break.'

'I'll spell this out for you: Matt was a _friend_ of mine. Now, he's gone delusional. It's a friend's duty to get him out of it.'

'And as his _girlfriend,_ it's _my_ duty to make sure he has his priorities right,' Gaige retorted.

Daniel Marx, otherwise known as the Digi-gram, the hologram user, looked at her with contempt and a little shock. He wasn't aware that the Anomaly had gained a romantic interest; Sharp had only told him that the girl both had information and her kidnapping would serve to draw Matt out. The man claimed that they took her as they had the opportunity, and would've taken Aurora if the option arose.

Not once had the idea that Gaige was amorously involved with the ex-Gemini and now Crimson Raider Vault Hunter come up. Matt had never been interested in relationships like that before – hence why he was mostly oblivious to Aurora's affections – and he wasn't really a ladies-man either.

 _Either way…this "Gaige" girl has made a terrible mistake: she's given me something to take advantage of._

Dan smiled a victoriously malign smile. Gaige tried to examine the thoughts that were going through his head, but was cut off when Dan wacked her on the side of the head with an assault rifle.

* * *

Axton led them down a tunnel deeper down inside Sanctuary, a place only accessible through pipes. That made sense, since how every Dahl miner would've had clearance to the access bay where the jump-ship(s) were usually placed.

The number of jump-ships present was determined by the size of the mining ship. The larger it was, the more there were on access. Given that Sanctuary was on the lower end of medium-sized mining ships, there'd likely be two at the most.

All they needed was one. They only needed to get close enough to Elpis to enact their rescue mission. Hopefully. Matt had his plans to do with the ship to help them get past Helios, using some his Gemini technology he'd kept with him.

'It's so dark down here,' Aurora complained. 'And I don't want anything to dirty up my battle armour.'

'Stop moaning,' Lilith ordered, not paying too much attention to her troubles.

'Matt's wearing similar armour to you and _he's_ not complaining,' Axton pointed out.

'Oh, don't even _start_ with that "comparison" bullshit,' the Revolverslinger argued.

'Shut up, Aurora,' Matt bitterly commanded. She shut up immediately.

'The door is just at the end of the walkway to our left,' Axton directed, nodded to path he was talking about. They made a left turn and were greeted by an old steel door. It had an access panel beside it. The Commando suddenly looked dejected.

'What?' Lilith asked.

'That's a Dahl access panel,' he informed them, banging on it for a second to reactivate it. The panel lit up an eerie green, with the Dahl symbol in the centre. Blinking text appeared requesting, "ENTER AUTHORISED KEYCARD INTO DESIGNATED SLOT" repeatedly. 'So we won't be able to access it.'

'Sure about that?' The Anomaly certified, smirking almost obnoxiously.

'Erm, y-yeah…' Axton faltered, not certain what his reply should be.

'Aren't you forgetting about _these?'_ Matt reminded, pulling out his red Bypass set he'd previously used to unlock and lock the Friendship Gulag bunker. It looked rusted and notched, clearly haven taken damage from Caine's bomb. The sender had still been stuck in what remained of the door to the bunker as he escaped three weeks later.

'Crap! I shoulda brought one of those,' Aurora realised.

'They're incredibly specialised and most of them don't work,' the Anomaly reassured her. 'Took me a good while to get _this_ Bypass set working.'

The Commando beckoned towards the door. Matt nodded, and placed the receiver into the slot at the bottom. It was sort of like a USB, but the port worked universally, to allow for versatility. He waited a few seconds for the receiver to integrate its software into the machine. At the bottom of it was a small light that glowed orange while it was processing, and green when done.

Thirty seconds later and the light abruptly turned to a static green. Instantly, the door unlocked, moving open slightly.

The Vault Hunters assumed pleased looks.

* * *

Gaige hated this. "Hate's a strong word" her parents would often say. She didn't care. Those Gemini lapdogs known as Violet and Dan had tortured her for several hours now. That wasn't what she hated so much. She hated their persistence. She hated their smug faces. She hated all of it. The Mechromancer admitted freely that they were more than a little annoying.

The Vault Hunter stared forward across the incredibly dim-lit room.

 _Dan and Aurora are cousins. How? The two are completely people! Dan's an idiot with a stupid smirk embedded into his face, while Aurora is usually reasonable – except when it comes to Matt. Her anger gets barely tolerable there._

Her heart skipped a beat.

 _Matt._

Admittedly, the name was constantly on her mind. Yeah, she wondered what he was doing, but Gaige was more hoping he hadn't broken down yet, not wishing to be beside him every waking moment. Matt had wordlessly sworn to protect her, so the girl couldn't really imagine what it was like for him since he probably believed himself a failure.

 _Crap. Now it's hard to UNmagine it. Wait…is that even a word? Probably not._

She resisted the urge not to laugh at her own natural quirkiness and idiosyncrasies.

Over the past hour or so, both Violet and Dan had come in a few more times. Dan had stop attempting to play mind games on her, knowing full well it would fail, and had instead resorted to other methods of torture. Violet had given her numerous burns, although she didn't feel them that much. Maybe the odd tingling feeling every now and then.

Gaige's eyes wandered over to her broken finger. Dan had snapped it in an effort to break her. Initially, after the pain had stopped, there was an uncomfortable feeling of shattered bone underneath her skin but that cleared up soon. The Mechromancer didn't really care if it was swollen or if the fragments had pierced her muscle tissue, since her will shone through.

Two and Four, the lame bunch they were, probably assumed Gaige was a weakling with willpower thinner than a small twig. They were dead wrong. The Vault Hunter could stand on her own two feet; she didn't need Matt to hold her up all the time. She had earned this perseverance ever since Lilith gave her that talk at the ex-Wildlife Exploitation Preserve. When she had just killed that Hyperion stooge.

Her hair was flowing in front of her face. Only now had she noticed someone had taken out her bobbles. Not that her hair was that long, but it got in front of her eyes a little and narrowed her vision. Moreover, the Mechromancer couldn't exactly just take a hand and brush it aside. Being without access to her hands wasn't fun.

 _I'm disarmed from weaponry, but I am not LITERALLY disarmed and amputated!_

The joke sounded better as she started to think it, but got worse as it continued. Thankfully, no one could hear it. Then she might have a problem. Few things were as awkward as a bad joke.

Gaige was fully aware she was just trying to make light of an awful situation. The Mechromancer had figured that a few jokes in her head and a lack of seriousness would raise her spirits and keep her from giving in to the torture. After all, the girl wasn't expecting to be saved just yet – which was why she had to hold out for so long.

Out of nowhere, the door in front of her flung open, as if someone had kicked it hard. Her slightly photophobic eyes adjusted to see who it was. Her heart stopped when she realised who it was.

Matt.

He was standing there, looking very pissed and somewhat desperate. Gaige was dumbfounded that the Anomaly had arrived so quickly. Had he used a spaceship or something?

'M-Matt?'

'Hey, Gaige,' he greeted wholeheartedly. 'I'm here to save you.'

'How did you get here so quickly?' The girl asked, still perplexed.

'Found a spaceship, the one Aurora's parents used,' he explained.

'I thought that burnt up on re-entry so they had to eject at the last minute?' The Mechromancer wondered, still in a dais. Matt hinted nervousness, but it disappeared instantly.

'They did repairs recently.'

'Nice.'

'That… _lovely_ …Aurora,' the Anomaly replied, but Gaige noticed it seemed like he'd forced those words out his mouth. She frowned.

 _He's happy and talking about Aurora…so why didn't he call her 'Ora?_

 _Wait a minute…_

Something was off.

'W-wait…'

'What is it, Gaige?' Matt asked, looking slightly concerned. For a millisecond, almost unnoticed by the Mechromancer, her so-called boyfriend… _glitched._

'Stop it,' the Vault Hunter finally gained the courage to say.

'What?'

'I know it's you.'

'What're you talking about?'

'I _told_ you, playing mind games on me won't work, _Dan,'_ she harshly responded. The image of the Anomaly disappeared, glitching out and dispersing. Dan stepped back through the door.

'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed, Gaige,' the Digi-gram commented, rather pleased.

'Stop this; it won't work.' Dan sighed.

'I'm sending you to Three. She'll know what to do with you.'

'Why?' She asked. 'What can _she_ do that _you_ can't?' Dan Marx chuckled silently, saliva dripping from his teeth like venom.

'You'll see,' the Gemini Vault Hunter forebode. He walked over to her and injected her with some drug, outside of her vision.

* * *

 **GETTING CLOSER TO CHAPTER 20!**

 **Anyway, I decided to have Claptrap in this chapter mainly because I've only mentioned him scarcely. That and he's an iconic character, so how can I** ** _not_** **include him?! Tiny Tina will also show up later, too. Also, I hope I'm not the only one who thought it was kinda funny with the whole "I will digitally castrate you" thing. Initially, I wrote that Matt said he'd rewire him to do awful karaoke, so I felt that joke was better and a little more R-rated. Even though this is T.**

 **And with reference to Dan, I thought I'd try to get a little more creative with his powers, rather than just having him use them strictly for offensive purposes. That being said, we haven't seen him fight yet, but let's just say that a big fight between (some of) the Crimson Raiders' Vault Hunters and Gemini's Vault Hunters is coming soon.**

 **And as a little send-off, I thought I might as well label all the titles of the newly-introduced Vault Hunters:**

* * *

 **Matt Rye: "The Anomaly"**

 **I like to think this is one of my more creative names out of all of them. It isn't quite so obvious how it fits his power and backstory.**

* * *

 **Aurora Lux: "The Revolverslinger"**

 ** _So imaginative,_ I know. I might change this later to something cooler, but I haven't come up with anything yet. Also, trying to separate her from Nisha.**

* * *

 **Caine Brooke: "The Explosions Master"**

 **I'm alternating between this and "the Executioner" however, for now, it's Explosions Master. I just feel like either can be very obvious and very aggressive.**

* * *

 **Daniel Marx: "The Digi-gram"**

 **Simple. A portmanteau of digital and hologram.**

* * *

 **Duke Minoosh: …?**

 **I haven't thought up a good one yet, since there're a lot of good marksmen in the Borderlands universe, so I don't want to go with something uncreative like "the Marksman" or "the Triggerman".**

* * *

 **Violet Parker: "The Light Bender"**

 **Personally one of my favourites since it reminds me of Avatar.**

* * *

 **Arcturus Vaus: "The Swift (One)"**

 **I haven't really talked about Vaus that much, but that's his title, since his winds are swift. I haven't used it yet, so I might leave it at "the Swift" or extend it to "the Swift One". Dunno. What do you think?**


	19. Accelerate

**Well, well, well, another a few days, another chapter down. The closer to the end I get, the more excited I am to write each chapter. So, I tried to balance this well between Matt's perspective and Gaige's, so I hoped I did a good job. There'll be a few little side things to break the tension, as well, such as a small scene with Aurora and her parents.**

 **Onward, then!**

* * *

 **Chapter Nineteen: Accelerate**

* * *

Axton stepped forward and pulled open the door, grunting and wheezing all the while. He didn't realise it would be so difficult to pull open – although he shouldn't have been surprised since it was large metal door. Once he did succeed however, it revealed mostly black emptiness, with nothing visible, only germinating darkness. That was until Axton leaned to his right and flipped the light switch.

It revealed an average storage bay, with crates and boxes that had tarps over them. The doors were a rusty metal, with the Dahl logo engraved on the wall. The lights were arranged on the ceiling sequentially, and equal distance apart; they were dim and a few of them blinked so fast it was virtually unnoticeable.

In the centre of the room were two Dahl-patented spaceships, large enough to accommodate maybe only a crew of four. Visibly, they'd been collecting coatings of dust likely thicker than the layers of rust on the walls.

Lilith wasn't surprised that one of those jump-ships wouldn't support all seven of them, but luckily, they had two of them. Admittedly, there wasn't too much grandeur about them, no glamour or excitability, instead they seemed very professional – like the person who'd made them had done so purely under regulations and that made them standard. Of course, the Siren wasn't overly shocked that they happened to be quite vapid.

Matt walked over to them, and blew on the front side of one of them, wafting off the dust. There was a hint of text revealed, which interested him enough to gust away more of it. Underneath the powdery dirt, "DAHL MINING SUBSIDIARY JUMP-SHIP" was shown with a registration number smaller under it. He gingerly touched it, before scraping his fingers across the surface, intrigued by it.

'Looks like it's the real deal, Ax,' the Anomaly commented, although it was fairly obvious anyway.

'We'll have to check if they're working, killer,' Lilith told him.

'Yeah, they might need fuel,' Aurora suggested.

'Or the engine might need reworking,' Axton added.

'Or the gas pipes could be dodgy so the ship could blow up if we try to fire it up,' Lilith one-upped.

'Calm down, guys!' Matt advised. 'No need to be so goddamn pessimistic, OK? I'd rather try and fail than not bother at all.'

'Fair point,' the Commando commended. He walked over to him and unlocked the door to the jump-ship using Matt's Bypass set. The Anomaly was quite worried the Vault Hunter would mess up and break it, but Axton succeeded just fine.

The Revolverslinger and the Siren both caught up with them to look inside the Dahl ship. It was a decent size, and had maintained itself surprisingly well given its long confinement. The ship was complete with smooth, light cream-coloured seats, with X-shaped seat belts with a circular attaching panel that had the Dahl logo imprinted on it.

The control panel at the front had numerous buttons, levers and switches to pull, each of them either labelled, or labelled into one group. There was one fairly large lever with "ACCELERATION" and "DECELERATION" above and under it respectfully. Next to it, there was one larger lever to turn the engine on. Speed meters measured in parsecs per hour to miles per second lined the centre side, along with acceleration meters and a large one to show fuel capacity.

Axton reached under the control panel and flicked a switch, which caused the lights to switch on around the central brig. It seemed quite fancy, but at the same time, it seemed a bit dull – especially with the boring grey paint job on the outside of the ship.

The glass screen brought up a HUD, which flashed "WARNING: FUEL LOW!" in red. The fuel tank meter was shown to be very close to the E mark, only a centimetre or two away from it.

'Well there's your answer,' Lilith pointed out, looking at Aurora. 'The fuel _is_ low.'

'What about the other ship?' She wondered.

'That won't matter if we're taking everyone with us, will it? We can't have one group go off and the other waits here and does nothing.'

She was right. The only potential threat here was Caine, and it was certain that Friedman could easily prevent him escaping or anything. In addition, he'd been stripped of all gear apart from his basic plain clothes. So no communicator, no weapons, nothing.

For this trip, they were going to need all the Vault Hunters they could get for this. Gaige was going through God-knows-what, so they couldn't merely dilly-dally.

'Great. Where are we gonna get rocket fuel?' Matt stressed.

'Hate to add insult to injury, but…' Axton caught their attention despondently. He cycled through the HUD on the screen to show another error. The screen stated that there was a wiring problem in the engines, which meant the engine was not going to work properly either.

'Oh.' Lilith sighed, crestfallen.

'Looks Aurora wasn't the only one that made a correct prediction,' Axton finished, sitting down on the seats lazily.

'Well, it's not the end of the world,' the Anomaly concluded. 'Scooter might be able to help out with the engine, right?'

'If we're lucky, yes,' Axton agreed.

'But we can't exactly just…go off to the aeronautics shop and buy some fuel,' the Revolverslinger supplemented.

'Tiny Tina might have some,' Lilith supposed, at this point desperate. 'You know, since some bombs ignite the same fuel.'

'That's if she hasn't blown it all up yet,' Matt reminded.

'Look who's being pessimistic now…' Aurora muttered.

'You know her?' Axton asked, ignoring the Vault Hunter's antagonistic statement. Matt nodded.

'I've been to the Tundra Express before,' he revealed. 'I tell you, that 13-year-old could freak out even the toughest of Gemini!' The Anomaly laughed, for the first time in a while, apparently.

'Roland liked her,' Lilith offhandedly mentioned, immediately regretting it.

'Who?' Aurora and the Anomaly both enquired confoundedly.

'Doesn't matter,' the Siren quickly replied. She put a hand up to her mouth and stifled a yawn. 'It must be getting late. Matt, Aurora, tomorrow you'll be getting yourselves off to the Tundra. Axton and I will go help Scooter with re-working these engines.'

'Yeah, I still know a thing or two about these Dahl spaceships,' Axton concurred. 'Not enough to fix them on my own though.'

'Good idea, Lil,' the Anomaly accepted.

'Well, I _do_ think I may be getting tired,' the Revolverslinger approved, tugging on Matt's arm sleeve.

Understanding what she meant, the Anomaly said, 'You ready?'

'Yep! C'mon, Matty! We best be off!' She dragged him out of the ship and near the door. Matt kept trying to get her attention before raising his voice as a last effort.

'Wait! I never asked. How are your parents doing? I kinda just, ran out on them.'

'Well…' she hesitated. 'They're staying for the night.' Had the Anomaly been drinking something, he would've spat it out instantly.

'Excuse me?!' Matt yelled.

'What?'

'Why didn't you warn me about this earlier?!'

'In the shock of what happened, I just _forgot,'_ the female Vault Hunter admitted. She hung her head in remorse. He put a welcoming hand on her shoulder.

'It's OK, but may I ask why they're staying over? Don't they have their own space?'

'No.'

'Then where have they been staying?'

'Well, they've sort of…staying in my bed while I've been sleeping in Crimson Raider HQ.' Matt stared at her in disbelief.

'Wh-why…?'

'Why? Because there isn't enough space. Why didn't I tell you? Because I knew how you'd react,' Aurora responded categorically.

''Ora…' She braced herself for his angry reaction. '… _You idiot.'_ He sniggered and gave her a warm smile, somehow not able to contain himself. 'There's a guest room opposite yours.'

'What?! It's locked! I thought it was a storage room or something!' The woman exclaimed, moving back in surprise.

'There's a key in the bottom of my desk drawer; you could've just asked.'

'You could've said!' They both stared at each other silently for a second, before erupting into raucous laughter.

'You can give them the guest room, then,' Matt concluded, as they walked down the tunnels towards the ladder that led to the surface of Sanctuary. Aurora straightened her red-orange coat collar nervously.

'I guess they'll get a kick out of it,' she supposed apprehensively, scratching her scalp.

'Hopefully…' Matt muttered. He stopped for a few seconds, standing frozen in the tunnel. His best friend stared at him.

'What is it?'

'Aurora?'

'Hm?'

'You don't ever need to keep things from me like that, OK? You know I'd understand and never judge.'

'I know, but –'

'There _is_ no but,' the Anomaly interrupted, causing her to fall absolutely silent. 'I'm sick of people being deceptive. I don't care the reason. Tell me like it is, don't try to sugar coat things because you're afraid of how I'll respond.

'Lemme tell you something: the world itself is blunt, but it's a lot of the people who aren't. There is no _shield_ to hide all the sins and tragedies and disasters you will face. You can't hide from it, because it's always there. Nothing is ever going to be put lightly. Cowards do things like that, as they're too afraid to admit what's true and are perfectly willing to live in some fantasy world where nothing goes wrong.

'Lying is fancy way of saying "you're scared" – it's a "get out of jail free" card to be spared from the crushing reality. Many leaders in history in the past few millennia understand this. However, there are substantially _more_ people in history who were poisoned by cowardice, to the point where they're too afraid to say it like it is.

'However, here's the thing that no one seems to understand about the truth: just _knowing_ it makes you _that_ much more morally humane. Understanding this, how life isn't always incredible, grants you a better perspective. Don't get me wrong, there're marvellous experiences to be had, but you know me – so you should know that are also _horrible_ things out there. Dark, warped, cunning people who will take any chance to succeed in their agendas. _Including_ being deceitful.

'Yet no one tackles this head-on anymore! They're too afraid to face the truth! Here's what I understand: Lying is two sides of the same coin. On one side, you lie to others; on the other, you lie to yourself. It's not weighted in any way. By avoiding what's right in front of you, you lie to yourself about it. Then you lie to others so they don't understand either. To say that annoys me is an understatement.

'And what people like you, Aurora, who are concerned about people's feelings (which, don't get me wrong, it's good to care) what you don't realise is that blunt veracity makes us adapt to it easier. It allows us to do not be deterred by it; however, it also means we're more inclined to do something about it!

'People who aren't at least _informed_ of the harsh actuality underestimate it! As a result, they expect _everyone else_ to tell them what they want to hear – whether they know it or not! And then, they're _surprised_ when the world isn't all rainbows and glorious sunshine and instead a HARSH BATTLEFIELD!' Aurora stepped back slightly in shock, as Matt gestured emphatically.

'People are constantly clinging to the mortal coil much like hair on someone's head. And just like hairs on a head, people fall off the mortal coil all the time. Once you switch your mind off to this completely, you essentially become a grey hair! It makes you weak, useless…and blind!

'The Intergalactic Nirvanha Battle **(A/N:** **Major intergalactic battle between the Nirvas (alien race) and the Piranhas ((terrorist group targeting the Nirvas** **)).** **It's a portmanteau)** and even the millennia-old Battle of the Somme don't even _compare_ to the battle of LIFE! When you're truly lying, you're hiding in the trenches. You aren't looking out over No Man's Land, no! Instead, you're cowering away from the battle fire, too afraid to be hit by it. Sure, you might live longer. But what kind of life is it where you evade what's true in favour of feeling more falsely safe? Would it really be worth it, when you aren't even making a difference?

'I'm tired of seeing this! Seeing people follow these ideals. And you might think I'm overreacting over something that really wouldn't matter all that much! Unfortunately, this isn't the first time people have lied to me. This isn't the first time you've been truly, non-jovially dishonest! I've been seriously dishonest before, even!

'And you know what? Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one who _REGRETS IT!'_ He ended up gasping a little for breath after he bellowed that last line. 'I'm sorry…I shouldn't have yelled that speech out at you.'

'It's OK, Matty,' Aurora consoled. She was actually more shocked at the sheer truth and perspicacity in his soliloquy. 'You needed to get that out. I can tell this isn't just because people have been falsehearted to you a lot in your life. I told you, _no one_ is blaming you if you're a little on edge since Gaige was kidnapped.'

'Fretting is pointless. It's just a mental shackle that stops you from doing something that warrants no further fretting. It just holds you back from fixing the problem at hand.'

'While that's true,' Aurora agreed. 'It's a natural human reaction. It doesn't matter if you don't want to worry, because you will. It's the unknown that makes you agonise about it.'

'I'm not worried.'

'What was that you said about lying? It's like hiding yourself from the battle fire? Yeah, that's right. Because that's what you're doing now.'

'I dunno…'

'You're lying to yourself _right now_.' Aurora put a hand on his arm. 'It's _OK_ to worry, Matt, for that just makes you human. Just like knowing the truth and understanding it, as you told me.'

The Anomaly thought about it, as they began to continue walking up the stairs to the next level and to another flight of stairs that would lead the next one, and then finally the proper ladder to the surface of Sanctuary.

'You're right,' he finally concurred. 'Sure, it's normal to worry, but I'm still going to focus on the task at hand. After all, we're pretty close to getting Gaige back.'

'Good,' the Revolverslinger accepted, as they reached the top of the stairs.

Matt nodded, and gave out a devout, 'Mm.'

'You know, I forgot you could be so wise nowadays, Matty.'

'I guess I got a new outlook on life since the Gulag incident,' the Anomaly guessed, shrugging his shoulders.

'So…' she paused. 'You're fine with my parents staying in your (our?) house?' He actually laughed at that question, surprised at himself that the situation had sprouted from that conversation.

'It's not a problem, 'Ora,' the Vault Hunter reassured her. His best friend smiled warmly.

 _Damn, Matty, sometimes you can be so…intense,_ she thought jovially.

The Anomaly excitedly broke into a sprint. He signalled for her to follow, to which she grumbled slightly and attempted to match his pace.

* * *

Gaige was disoriented. Perhaps that might've been an underestimation. Starry lights and colours were flashing in her eyes, like a firework had gone off in front of her eyes. Sounds blared loud and uncontrollably in her ears, refusing her a chance to focus.

She could sense that she was being moved somewhere, but the bright whites, reds, blues, greens, and purples prevented her from seeing clearly. The noise she could hear wasn't direct or clear – it was a cacophony of jumbled clangs, hums and odd resonances that were unintelligible to her.

Unfortunately, the Mechromancer could not look around either. Or at least, she believed she couldn't. The girl couldn't actually tell if her head was moving or even if her eyes were blinking, as there were only bright lights and a garbage tip of discorded sound.

Unsurprisingly, the Vault Hunter desired to scream and shout, although she knew that would be in vain. Furthermore, Gaige didn't actually know what she'd be screaming _at._

If her memory served her well, the last thing she experienced was Daniel Marx. He was attempting to fool her, possibly to give up any information she had, and to break her will in general. It had been very clear to both Dan and Violet that their methods were not working. Moderately, Gaige was proud of that. She could survive through this; after all, it meant seeing another day.

As quite a strong-willed girl, the Mechromancer never fancied herself as a damsel in distress. Not one to have to be saved by a knight in shining armour. She wasn't going to collapse into tears on Matt when he arrived.

 _Or if,_ her mind devilishly added. The Vault Hunter was actually surprised her brain could conjure up _any_ thoughts at all, given the mess of albeit fading noises and flashing lights she was experiencing.

Of course, Gaige didn't question that the Anomaly would attempt to save her. That was just who he was. However, it didn't mean he'd succeed. Certainly, if he failed, she would get out of the situation herself. She was already trying to. Although, planning ahead and thinking straight was quite difficult for her at the moment.

The Mechromancer initially thought the trip she was having was because Dan had done something like clocked her in the head from behind her vision. She didn't see. If that were true, it should've faded a few seconds after she woke up. This dissonance had been going on for a couple minutes at the least.

 _Have I been…drugged?_

Consequently, Gaige shuddered. Or at least, she thought she did. It was hard to tell. Her current state had completely messed up her senses, and it had actually given her minor headache. The Vault Hunter was half not surprised she'd be the one to get a headache over noises and lights she was likely imagining.

The Mechromancer believed she was still being taken to Three, probably by Gemini agents. In addition, the girl was perhaps put under a sedative to keep her deadened so she wouldn't wake up while they were unbinding her. Though, that wouldn't have these effects. Sedatives would only really affect her in that she would go unconscious.

'There's no use struggling,' a voice warned her. It took precedence over the noise, yet is sounded like a distant memory rather than something happening now. It definitely sounded like Dan. 'You're on a few drugs right now. Couldn't let ya remain composed as we move you to Three, now could we?'

 _They're still moving me!_

The path ahead of her was uncertain. Matt had mentioned it before.

 _"_ _The future is a veiled path."_

Even now, that statement rang true. It stood well against the test of time.

Several minutes later, her mind suddenly went blind and would not go back. The noise was drowned out and the lights disappeared. It wasn't like she was going unresponsive, since things tended to go black. Similarly though, the girl couldn't see or hear anything.

The whiteness faded away slowly, allowing her to attempt to adjust to her surroundings. Desperately, her eyes darted around, desiring answers. She finally noticed that in front of her was the face of a very stern woman. She wore identical armour to Two and Four, except her number was three.

'Sssssoo you're Thhhreee,' Gaige's voice slurred. Luckily, she was still intelligible.

'Who said you could talk?' The woman harshly probed.

'Sssssorrry, _mmmoooomm,'_ the Mechromancer quipped, despite her hardly coherent speech. Three didn't seem to appreciate her comment, given that she slapped her.

'You're in _no_ place to be making jokes!' Three yelled. 'Now, I'm going to be doing what the others can't.'

'Wha'sssss that?'

'I'm getting information from you.'

'Good llluck on that.' A demonic smile stretched across Three's face.

* * *

Mr and Mrs Lux stared at Matt curiously.

'You're telling me this _whole time_ there was a spare room?!' Mr Lux exclaimed, blinking, shocked.

'Yes…' the Anomaly confirmed nervously.

'My baby has been sleeping in Crimson HQ on a blow-up mattress!' Mrs Lux replied worriedly, shaking her hands over-emphatically.

'Well, I didn't _know_ that! I would've told you if you'd told me you were staying!'

'Don't blame this on her!' Mr Lux quarrelled.

'Guys, stop!' Aurora shouted over them.

'Quiet, Miss Borealis,' her dad ignored her.

'It's not his fault! Now, stop bickering like children and just go move into the guest room!'

At that outburst, the three fell silent, not wanting to follow the dispute they'd been having for the past few minutes. Her mother and father sighed loudly, before marching into Aurora's room and moving their stuff out. Matt helpfully unlocked the door to the guest room.

The Revolverslinger simply stared as these events unfolded. She could tell Matt wasn't too focussed on her parents, and helping her out. Gaige was on his mind, not that she could really blame him. He had the decency not to show it, of course, but it was still in his forefront of his mind.

His long rant-speech about the truth and how people foolishly hide from it had had a much more profound effect on her than either of them had initially realised. The woman had not been scared or mystified by it; instead, it had actually _inspired_ her. This version of Matt knew things about life that she didn't. He had contemplated things she'd never really considered.

She could only wonder what he might say to people like Sharp, who they both personally thought had a twisted, militaristic view of the world that he failed to shake. Sure, life was a battlefield, but it had numerous rest stops. It wasn't ever continuous fighting, even Matt was aware of it. He revelled in the concept that life had its ups, but had been deeply affected by the downs it also provided.

Needless to say, his view made him truly human. Not like Sharp or Caine, who, plainly, didn't understand the true concept of life.

'Thanks _so much_ for your help, 'Ora,' Matt called out sarcastically, as he hauled the last few things into the guest room. It snapped her out of her reverie. He moved to lean on the wall beside her.

'You're _ever so welcome,'_ the Vault Hunter replied in the snarkiest fashion. It was not effective in hiding her true thoughts.

'You OK? It seemed like you were thinking.' She rubbed her temples with her thumb and index finger and shook her head at herself.

'I've been thinking a lot about what you said to me.'

'I'm sorry if I freaked you out.'

'Nonono!' She assured, waving her hands in front of him frantically. 'That's not what I meant? It was actually um… _moving.'_

'Really?' The Anomaly wasn't altogether used to people calling him wise. He was very young, so he didn't expect it. Yet, it seemed like he had several decades of knowledge and experience. Matt never quite got used to how his words could have an effect on others.

'Yeah. It's like you have some perspective on life others don't realise. Like, there are things you see that everyone else is blind to. You're only 20, and I'm 22, but you have this…knowledge that seems beyond even the most elderly of people. I can see it in your eyes, Matt.'

'I make mistakes more than anyone, though,' he dejectedly admitted.

'I think mistakes are just a sign of understanding. But where does that experience _come from?'_

'Well, it's not out my ass.' Aurora laughed at that comment. 'When I think about what I've gone through, and what other people around me have had to go through, I realise these things. They come to me like some randomised result on an 8-ball, but they stick with me. Ever since the Gulag, ever since I unlocked these new tiers of my Chronokinesis, I feel like I'm tapping into ancient Siren awareness which helps to guide me.'

Interested, Aurora only really said, 'Well, that sounds very spiritual.'

'It is. I'd have to ask Lilith or Maya about it more. Aurora, I can tell that time is being very loose right now. Whatever happens now will be a harbinger of events to come. I can _feel_ it. Like, I can sense time as it passes. And I know that any minuscule move now will affect what happens, I can just… _tell._ '

'And I guess that nightmare-vision has only helped to spur that along, then,' the Revolverslinger observed.

'Exactly. The future's fragile. The one we want, at least. There's this feeling inside me. I don't know entirely what it is. It's not regret, guilt, or remorse. Nor is it happiness, anticipation or joy. It's not quite paranoia. It's like…' He couldn't find the right word.

'Knowing,' his best friend finished for him.

'Well…yeah! It's as if my mind is trying to tell me something but the conscious part doesn't know what it is and my heart can't interpret it. This…uneasiness, it's just…indescribable.'

It was simply ineffable. He couldn't put it into proper words because his brain couldn't fathom his connection to Sirens properly. So what that link told him wasn't always clear. Other times, however, otherworldly understanding was granted him, words rolling off his tongue by instinct.

Aurora understood.

The Vault Hunter wasn't quite sure how, but she the feeling he had…she was feeling it too. Maybe not to the extent that it was bothering her, but now that Matt had brought attention to it, she could detect it too. It was an unnerving feeling, so she could get where he was coming from.

'I get it,' the Revolverslinger thought aloud, catching him off-guard.

'You sure?'

'Yes. You don't know where the world is going, but you that every single miniscule movement you take going to affect the outcome.'

'You cannot simply place such an indescribable feeling under a matter of a few words,' Matt replied precociously, as if there was some aspect about the subject she had unfortunately missed.

The Revolverslinger could see multiple emotions in his eyes when he said that. There was this sadness, which was unsurprising, but also this mysterious relief – as though he secretly knew everything was going to be fine. Perhaps Matt wasn't even aware of that. Anger had been demonstrated in droves already, so it seemed like he'd been drained of it.

'On what basis can you make that claim?' Aurora inquired, suddenly angry. She even surprised hr self with how angry she sounded just then. 'I'm giving such a basic description _because_ it's inexpressible. I'm trying to provide closure by giving something that gets as close to the real thing as possible.' The Anomaly was stunned at the sudden rush of emotions that his best friend has just felt.

'S-sorry,' he stammered confusedly. Aurora sighed pointedly at herself, annoyed that she had suddenly lashed out at him verbally.

In his disposition, she could tell that he had some way of arguing against her statement – although the woman wasn't sure what – but the Revolverslinger could see the Anomaly didn't want to get into a heated dispute.

'So what are we doing for tonight?' She asked abruptly. Aurora could feel the grumble in her stomach, or at least there was some sort of feeling like it. Maybe it was just some imagination. Either way, she wanted food, and she wanted it fast.

'We have some Rakk ale from Mordecai and some Stalker meat with some Pandoran Trade vegetables to eat,' he answered casually. 'All depends on if you wanna cook it.' Matt flashed a smile that instantly made her brain overload with endearment.

 **(A/N: Pandoran Trade isn't a company based on Pandora; it's from Atrios-6 – hence how they got it, from the Aurora's parents – and trades to Pandora. It targets mainly Sanctuary. It changes its name accordingly, e.g. if it were Darios, it would be the Darian Trade.)**

'I'm not your housewife!' Aurora joked, not convinced by his cajolement. Matt laughed accordingly.

* * *

The Anomaly lay in his bed, at pitch-black midnight. His room had this strange presence of blue, like the light in his room was refusing to wither away. To say it was late would be stating the obvious, and there certainly no point in that. Clear cut, that's how he liked things to be.

He thought back on his conversation with Aurora earlier. Matt doubted whether or not this newfound Siren connection of his was really worth it. It was constantly filling his head with uneasiness, and warnings whose prophecies were incredibly vague or unclear.

Pensively, the Vault Hunter found himself looking at his marred flesh around his arms and hands. They reminded him of what he was fighting for: to see another day. To _enjoy_ another day. Regretful, Matt actually liked how Gaige rested her head beside him – how she had fallen asleep on his shoulder a day or two ago. He smacked himself on the forehead a few times to chastise himself for missing her touch, and admitting it.

Gaige was coming home. No doubt about that. Although she preferred to give Matt as an example of someone who was strong, the Anomaly rather favoured her over anyone else. She was strongly-willed, no doubt about it, but the Mechromancer had a unique talent to make light out of even the most morbid of circumstances.

Admittedly, both of them liked to think of their relationship as not just a romantic interest, but also a partnership. They worked together as well as enjoyed each other's company. Despite that, either of them could easily last without the other – although being together was much more desirable than being apart.

 _Is that wrong? Is it bad to want to be near each other but be perfectly fine NOT_ _so?_ The idea tortured him.

There was a knock on his door.

Silently wondering why someone always seemed to have to snap him from his train of thought at the worst moments, he hollered, 'Come in!'

Apprehensively, the door opened.

Aurora's dad, Alexander Lux, walked inside. He seemed like he wasn't sure what to expect.

'You need something?' Matt asked politely.

'Can I sit down?'

'Sure.' He fumbled out of bed to move a nearby chair. Alexander stood patiently as the Anomaly offered a chair to him and took another for himself, sitting beside each other at his desk. There was an awkward silence between them for a moment.

They stared at each other.

'Was there something you wanted to talk about?' The Anomaly wondered.

'Matt: words can't describe how highly Samantha and I think of you. What you've gone through is what makes how you're still moving forward so shocking.' The Vault Hunter considered interrupting him to ask what the hell the Atrosian was going on about, but knew it was pointless considering he wasn't finished.

Alexander sighed, visibly discomforted.

'But Aurora…she can get reckless. Especially around you. She gets that from you, you know.' Matt wasn't sure of he was blaming him or was merely making an impartial observation. 'That's not your fault. However, I don't want her running off into danger because the one she loves his doing it too.'

It was the Anomaly's turn to sigh. Alexander held out his hand in front of him as a manner to stop him.

'I can already tell you have someone else. I'm sure Aurora does too. That's not the point. She's still in love with you. She may be content to stay friends, but those feelings do not just…go away.

'So she's been taking after you a lot: to the point where she had adopted many of your traits. Some of the good ones like selflessness and determination. But also some of the negative ones. Like your bitterness and of course, that recklessness to get into danger. I trust you, Matt – but there's a sliver of ice in your heart.

'This was something I wanted to talk to you about as soon as I arrived on Pandora, since she's been taking after you for years. Unfortunately, you were…out of commission at the time, and I intended to bring it up to you during that get-together yesterday, but that Gaige girl was kidnapped at the time. As a result, I have only this moment to talk to you about this.

'I want you to protect Aurora. No matter what. I don't care if she is against it; I don't care if she tries to prevent you out of her own negligence; I just want you to _keep her safe._ It's not something my wife and I can do so easily anymore. You can.

'Keep my girl safe no matter the cost, because I do not want to be given the news that she has died through her own rashness – rashness she got from you. Think of it like your duty.

'My daughter loves you almost more than she loves us, which is why I want you to keep her in line. No brash actions from either of you. I wish I could say I wanted you to love her the same way back, but you and I both know that just isn't possible.

'That's my ultimatum. Do you understand?' Matt looked at him blankly for a moment.

'Of course I understand. I _have_ been reckless in the past, and admittedly, so has Aurora. I would never want to get her killed. Ever. I vow to do everything in my power to keep her safe. Everything I can to make sure nothing is done wrong by her. Although I never intended her to act like me, I think she has her own traits as well.

'Ole 'Ora's incredibly confident and determined on her own. She didn't need me to make her that way. She's stubborn, and is forceful about what she believes in. I'm sure you and your wife would know that more than anyone.'

'That's fair,' Mr Lux acknowledged, nodding.

'However…' Matt added hesitantly. 'It's not like Aurora _needs_ that much protection anyway. While I admit she can let her emotions can get the better of her, it's not like the woman can't fend for herself. She's perfectly able to look out for herself.'

'She may be able to protect _herself_ , but she'd lose it if she couldn't protect _you.'_

'I know. That's why I am always going to keep Aurora safe. She means to me more than almost anyone I know, so you'd be damn well sure I'll protect her.'

'Good.'

Unbeknownst to either of them, Aurora was standing outside their room, listening to their conversation. She had heard talking coming from Matt's room, so she went to his room to check if he wasn't talking in his sleep again. Instead, she heard almost all of the dialogue between her dad and her best friend.

She had not expected it.

Though, she loved every minute of it. Not selfishly, but hearing what he had said to her father. It brought a joyous tear to her eye at how much Matt cared for her. His vow to protect her while simultaneously acknowledging her own strength as it was reminded her why she fell in love with him in the first place.

Alexander was right that she was willing to stay best friends, but he was also right that she was still in love with him. It wasn't painful anymore – it just felt empty, and that feeling was easy to ignore when the situation was right. Matt wasn't blind to it though, it was clear he could tell that she wasn't doing just perfect, the Anomaly was just polite enough not to bring it up.

Additionally, the Vault Hunter disliked being called reckless, yet she begrudgingly accepted it as fact. There'd been several times in the past where death was on her doorstep due to her carelessness. Similar things had indeed occurred to Matt too. In contrast to her, though, the Anomaly was much more powerful than she was: his power was strong and made it easier for him to avoid death. Most of the time she survived those situation out of pure luck with only a tiny bit of flair.

'I guess I must be going now,' her dad told him. This caught her attention. As she heard the sound of a chair scraping across the floor, Aurora hurried back to her own room.

The ceiling was invitingly white, with an aesthetically pleasing tiled pattern indented across it. Her eyes were fixed on the lines that made out the squares, but her mind was focussed on her dad and Matt's conversation.

Matt wanted to protect her.

No matter the cost.

He wasn't even considering himself.

The thought somewhat annoyed her. One of Matt's defining traits was his selflessness. However, that meant he flaunted the safety of his own life as he sought out the safety of others. It was a good thing to be selfless, as Alexander had said, but he also implied that one must also be a bit selfish from time to time; if you were at least a hint of it, it would keep you in check.

 _Well, Matt,_ Aurora thought, _you may be looking out for me and protecting me, but that doesn't mean I won't be doing the same for you. Whether you like it or not._

* * *

 **Was that good? I should think so, since I put a lot of effort into this one! Do review! (You don't have to, haha.) Side note: This chapter is almost as long as Forbearance. Chapter Fifteen is still the longest, though, but only by, like, 100 words.**

 **Also, I hope that speech about the truth from Matt didn't seem too forced, but it has been something that had been building up inside him for a while. People have been dishonest to Matt a lot. So, when he discovered that his best friend had lied to him (although it wasn't too bad of a lie), he just snapped and went on that rant.**

 **I'd like to think that I poured my heart and soul into that speech, since a few of those things I could apply to my own experiences. Remember: Matt's been a lot wiser since he escaped from the Gulag, so I wanted to remind the reader of that.**

 **As I explained before, he's tapping into Siren awareness which allows him to take an alternative look at the world around him. Since his connection to the Vault is strengthening (though, the Vault** ** _is_** **still opening, and at the same rate).**

 **Finally, I thought that that the talk between Aurora's dad and Matt was well overdue, as the two haven't really spoken to each other much since they arrived on Pandora. With the threat of the Vault looming over, it only seemed right that Alexander talk to him about protecting his beloved daughter.**

 **ONE MORE TO CHAPTER TWENTY! SEE YOU THEN!**


	20. Counter Strike

**Finally, the "fabled" twentieth chapter to** ** _Someone Else_** **arrived. I guess this is a milestone, huh? Writing this much while still staying on track is really difficult, I must say, since I have to be careful not to bring up throw-away details and that most of the exposition delivered pays off at some point. There is a still a few things I am yet to clear up (i.e. why the Vault Monster's roars were described as humane, etc.) but don't worry, because I will!**

 **I decided to name this after a Zer0 skill, since I haven't named a chapter after one of them for a while (ha, irony since earlier the opposite was the case), and I think it fits really well.**

 **And as a little tease, Tiny Tina is in this chapter!**

 **So, here we are…**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty: Counter Strike**

* * *

Three shots.

That was enough.

Or so Two believed. Three preferred to use more. Four shots might've hurt more, but she supposed it didn't go as in tandem with her name as three did. Did it really matter? After all, she just liked to cause as much pain within her subjects as possible while not overdoing it.

A triple injection of medium dosage perhexiline would probably result in enough pain for her subject today, this Gaige girl.

Apparently, Gemini didn't have much information on her. She went missing from her home after breaking some law. They didn't know what that law was or why she broke it. If she presumably ran away, then the crime she committed must've been severe.

On top of that, she was a Vault Hunter. Everyone except Commander Sharp, the Big Five, the Director, and the elite higher-ups believed that no Vault Hunters outside of the corporation existed. **(A/N: The Big Five refers to Sharp's in-commands – Two, Three, Four, Five and Six.)** It was a lie facilitated because they wanted to become known as the company who revolutionized Vault Hunters, and the ones to hunt the Vaults. So this girl being a Vault Hunter was a big deal, and something they needed to keep under wraps.

Luckily, the Gemini Vault Hunters knew of her already, and the only evidence that she was a Vault Hunter was her own word, and the Vault symbol on her belt. Only the Vault Hunters understood the true nature of the emblem, so it wasn't as if anyone else was going to realise she was a Vault Hunter based on that.

Now, she was sitting on a pristine white chair in a torture-type room. There was a large vaguely human-shaped operating table in front of her, complete with leather buckles to keep the occupant tied down. **(A/N: Think the tables they use for Lethal Injection in America.)** There were several of them, taut to the arms, the head, the legs, and at various points on the chest.

It was like something out of a heavy psychiatric ward or something.

And the inhabitant of this particularly secure tabled enclave? Gaige the Mechromancer.

 _Mechromancer…Mechromancer…_ Three repeated that title in her head over and over and had been since she'd heard it from Commander Sharp. _Such a childish title._ Putting together the prefix "Mechro-" meaning "technology" or "machine" and the suffix "-mancer", meaning "master, wielder or practitioner" wasn't exactly the most difficult thing to do in the world.

The made-up word itself was childish just by the way it sounded: like whoever had come up with was trying to make it sound cool but had flagrantly failed and it instead sounded dorky and silly.

Gaige struggled in her restraints. Three could see that she'd only recently gained proper awareness of her surroundings. She made sure to get out her digital notebook and pen. Normally, she would've used an ECHO recorder, but Three didn't want to reveal what she was thinking out loud to her supposed enemy. Right now, she couldn't have afforded to be stupid.

'That's useless to try, you know,' she warned the girl. The girl's head swivelled immediately to her. Three noted the animosity in her eyes and wrote something down on her notebook:

* * *

 **Subject known as "Gaige" shows lack of control over her emotions. Freely expresses them aptly just using her eyes. She has not spoken yet, must see if emotions properly translate to voice. Expected to follow through.**

* * *

'I'll try on my own, thanks,' Gaige responded, making it clear that the "thank you" in that was not one of sincerity. Three nodded to no one in particular and added an addendum to her previous statement in that she was indeed correct.

Gaige glanced over to a metal tray by Three's desk, and noticed three syringes with some unknown liquid inside them.

'What is that stuff?' She asked blatantly. Three initially ignored her until Gaige repeated the question.

' _That_ is perhexiline,' the third in command told her. The Mechromancer looked at her questioningly and she sighed. Three didn't suffer fools gladly. She was intelligent when it came to stuff like this, so she wasn't used to asking such stupid questions. Therefore, she hated it when simpletons like this girl did.

'Eh?' The Vault Hunter asked uncouthly. Three shot her a look of "shut the fuck up I wasn't finished" and sure enough, the girl kept quiet.

'It's a prophylactic antianginal agent that works by inhibiting the mitochondrial carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1. As a result, it can cause extreme pain with a high enough dosage and with a few extremities to the proportions.'

Gaige looked at her blankly, having no idea what she just said. Three harboured small pride in her own intelligence.

'Normally, it would've been served as a white bevelled tablet,' Three went on. 'However, that was a long time ago. It has since been converted into a liquid, which means its toxicity is higher and faster-acting, and it is overall much more effective.'

'Is this some psychiatric ward?' The Mechromancer asked openly, not caring for the implications she may be making from that.

Three didn't answer, and instead continued writing in her digital notebook:

* * *

 **Additionally, Gaige shows blatant disrespect for her superiors and does not seem to understand the gravity of the situation she is in. She appears to have a crudely constructed pedestal which she places herself on, that which allows her to ask questions as though she possesses authority, but lacks even a quark of it. It is yet to see if this bravado is all there is, or if she may have ulterior talents.**

* * *

Although the Vault Hunter could not see what she was writing, the minute or two it took for Three to write that alarmed her.

'Is that why you're writing notes?' She invasively enquired. 'Are you a psychiatrist?'

'No. I'm a chemist.'

'Then what're you doing as Commander Sharp's third in command? Wouldn't companies like Anshin prefer you rather than Gemini?' Three was starting to get annoyed by her constant questioning.

'It's none of your business. Shut it or I'll inject more than just three shots into your system. You got that?' The woman harshly shot at her. Gaige awkwardly nodded. 'Besides, _I_ should be the one asking questions.'

'If you wanted answers, you should've just used some truth serum.'

'That's not what I'm searching for. This whole session is about who _you_ are. What _you_ will admit about yourself. A truth serum would get out easily what you really think, but you would never believe it. This is much more effective,' she elaborated.

* * *

 **Shows minor intelligence that is hidden by impertinence. Lacks basic etiquette.**

* * *

The Mechromancer's eyebrows raised, and she attempted to move her head up. The leather braces were far too tight around her chest and head to allow her to do that.

 _What could she POSSIBLY_ _have gathered from that small interaction to write down in that digi-book?_

'This pain drug…when're you injecting it?'

That was one question Three actually _didn't_ mind her asking.

'Once I have gotten enough from you.'

'Enough of what?'

Three was annoyed by that question though. She hated having to explain herself so much and enlighten this insolent girl on every single detail.

'Enough psychological information.'

'You want me to tell you about me?'

'Is that a problem?'

'Sorry, am I _supposed_ to be cooperative?'

As much as the third in command hated to admit it, Gaige had a good point there. Undoubtedly, she knew that Gemini was directly opposing her, so there was no reason for her to do anything they wanted her to. This Mechromancer girl seemed to be just intelligent enough to realize they wanted to know about her so they could document it. Even then, she could lie.

Except, Three was notoriously good at detecting liars.

Hell, maybe she _was_ a psychiatrist. More like a psychologist, then. Three preferred the job title of chemist, though. Not a chemist that would prescribe drugs, but a chemist who knew the ins and outs of elements and how they fitted together like jigsaw pieces, allowing her to be perfectly capable in inciting the most amount of pain she needed to any multicellular organism.

* * *

 **Unsurprisingly, Gaige is uncooperative about her backstory. Perhaps there is something in her past she regrets and has regretted which has likely shaped her way of thinking.**

* * *

All she needed to do was dish out some threats.

'I wouldn't be so uncertain about being cooperative when you're in enemy territory. We _do_ have a shooting range, you know,' the woman threatened subtly.

' _Please._ If you were going to kill me, you would've done it already,' the Vault Hunter pointed out.

 _Crap._

This girl wasn't as stupid as she seemed. She knew they needed her. She knew they needed Matt. She knew _they_ knew that the two were well-acquainted. One could connect those dots easily, but would have to use a network of lines just to get there.

'Who do you think's keeping you alive, _Gaige?'_ Three fired back. Gaige's eyes widened upon mention of her name. She successfully scared her.

'What…what do you mean?'

'You don't think we can't just track down your parents and take them out?'

'You won't be able to get to them.'

'Oh? We won't, will we?' The woman sardonically teased. 'We already have an agent on the inside.'

'Who's trapped and isn't getting out?'

'Did you really think we'd be reckless enough to let our most _potent_ agent be taken?'

Gaige suddenly knew exactly what she meant, and ran it through her head a couple times. _Did Caine get captured on purpose? Matt did say he was smart, so being reckless – even towards his arch enemy – seems weird. But Matt would've seen that from a mile off; he made sure his imprisonment was top-tier so he couldn't get out._

Three furrowed her brow as she saw her subject visibly contemplating what she just said. Sure, it was a half bluff, but Gaige didn't know that. If she did, then the Mechromancer certainly _didn't_ know what part was true and what was false.

* * *

 **Displays signs of potential cajolement and may be coaxed into some minimally consequential actions.**

* * *

That seemed promising. Once Three spotted those matching jigsaw pieces, it was child's play to put them together. Merely, it was a matter of cause and effect. That was just a skill she possessed as a chemist. In a way, a lot of things interacted in the way elements interacted with one another. Most people didn't see that.

'I trust Matt. I think he'd know if you were trying to distract us. I don't know if you've noticed, but the guy's _very_ observant.'

'You like Matt Rye, then?' She investigated.

'One of the best people I know. Love 'im.'

'Hmm…'

* * *

 **Patient seems quite close to the Anomaly known as Matt Rye. She thinks incredibly highly of him, and is not afraid to express her romantic feelings towards him. The fact that she is may also mean she is prepared for people to take advantage of that.**

* * *

'That's not really worth writing down about, is it?' Gaige rudely interjected on her thought process. To be fair, it was quite obvious that that was what she was writing about.

'Your backstory. I want to know what happened to you that you don't like talking about.'

 _Shit,_ Gaige thought. _This woman…Three…is far too intelligent._

 _And so the jigsaw snaps together…_ Three mused in her head.

'Not to be rude…' Gaige began, but swiftly corrected herself. 'Actually, _no._ Screw that. I _am_ going to be rude. Why don't you just fuck off about my own life prior to Vault Hunting? I know that's what you're after. It's hypocritical _as hell._ You told _me_ to mind _my_ own business but you're not doing the same!'

'Sensitive topic, huh?' Three provoked aggressively.

'Go fuck yourself.'

'I'll just take an ounce of this injection…' Three reached for the metal tray and took the first syringe. 'Normally, I don't have to resort to the perhexiline, but never mind.'

Gaige tried not to look scared, however, she knew a modicum of her fear was showing. But she was willing to endure it. For Matt. For everyone.

Three leant forward, pressed the syringe against Gaige's arm, and slowly injected about half of the substance. The Mechromancer tried to struggle, but it useless under the leather bounds.

It only took three seconds for searing, fake pain to shoot through her entire body.

* * *

Three shots.

That was enough. No more, no less.

Matt thought so. He was worried he might've needed a fourth shot if he wasn't careful enough. A triple shot was more preferable than a quadruple shot. Or a quintuple. Did it matter? Varkids weren't especially strong until they evolved to Badass and onwards.

Vermivorous wasn't a target, though.

Admittedly, however, had he missed the thorax, he might've needed a fourth.

His sniper rifle he was using wasn't his Volcano. As preferable as that would be, he'd given it to Aurora instead. Now, he was using a Lyuda. Perhaps it would've been smarter to have Zer0 along so he could use that Bessie of his.

Still, a fully automatic sniper rifle like the Lyuda had many perks. It had a critical hit modifier. Sure, each separate shot yielded less damage, but when that came together the sniper was nearly unmatched. After all, he was using these on Adult Varkids, not Larval Varkids.

The Lyuda he had – non-elemental – wasn't all that flashy, yet, Matt wasn't one for flashy weapons like the Storm. He preferred weapons that killed fast rather than looked cool. After all, guns existed to kill. But yes, if a weapon was scoring high in both of those areas (like a Conference Call, maybe) then the Anomaly would happily use them.

He keenly surveyed the landscape.

What would be the best way to describe the Tundra Express? Quaint didn't quite work. The climate changed too drastically across it for it to be considered comfortable to be in. Picturesque didn't go well either, since the fauna wasn't all too friendly, and bandits ran rampant through the area.

One could really only call it "the place where Tiny Tina lives" and nothing else. That's all it was to the Crimson Raiders now. The mining place had been cleared out, and the Buzzard academy was just irrelevant now.

Aurora shuddered beside him. Matt wasn't surprised. The Revolverslinger had a distinct disliking towards bugs, so seeing giant bugs freaked her out. And her being around Threshers was probably worse. Especially since Threshers came from Elpis, where Lima Base One was.

They were at the top of the hill by the fast travel, the Ammo Dump and the Portable Clinic. Away from the Varkids. Close enough to shoot them.

The yellow towers with holes in them where the Varkids came out of were easily spotted, too. Matt actually remembered reading somewhere that those were actually fully adulted female Varkids who'd planted themselves into the ground to seed more Larval Varkids. _That_ was freaky, but also kinda fascinating.

Matt was still thinking back on the previous night, and his conversation with Alexander Lux. He was actively looking out for Aurora, although he got this distinct feeling of defiance from her – more so than normal – that hinted that maybe she'd heard some of that conversation.

He didn't mind if she had. It was about _her_ , after all. Yet, Matt hoped that Aurora was just trying to prove herself because of what she may have heard, and was not completely trying to go against her father's wishes.

Hold down the trigger.

Maintain accuracy.

Matt didn't spare too much thought to what Mr Lux's wife Samantha might say. He assumed that Alexander was speaking for both of them, especially given that she gave a knowing nod to him that morning. Samantha didn't say anything, though it wasn't like she _needed_ to say anything. Not to mention Aurora was there – and she didn't want to go into detail about her own daughter while she stood right there.

Critical hit. Slagged. Insta-kill.

Even though he was directly looking out for her, it felt like he was going against his word by bringing Aurora along for this mission. Despite the fact that they'd arranged it prior. Yeah, he wasn't putting her in _too_ much danger, but aforementioned, the Revolverslinger _hated_ being around big bugs and insects.

Reload. An instantaneous reaction.

Of course, last night didn't go so well. He had yet another nightmare. Surprisingly, it wasn't about Gaige. His sister showed up in his dreams again. Matt still had no idea why. This time it wasn't a painful memory of her.

It was something else. Something he didn't understand.

In his dream, she was calling for him. Asking for him to find her. Amelia was telling him to keep moving because she was waiting for him. That was impossible. Amelia Rye was dead and had been dead for a good while now. Her brains had blown out with two _Hyperion_ bullets from a _Hyperion_ -issued pistol from a _Hyperion_ soldier.

Pull trigger. He missed. _Shit._

This couldn't have been simply stress-induced. It seemed like a Siren premonition. Why would it be about Amelia? Plainly, that did not make sense.

Some time ago, he used to imagine Amelia in his head. He used to envisage entire conversations with her, and what she would do. It helped him get through the trauma of the Genisys Project, and to force himself to stay alive from it. What use would that be now? Was that even the culprit?

He never actually told anyone that.

Matt missed again and glanced at Aurora. She was trembling from the sight of the Adult Varkids slowly and menacingly flying towards them. The Anomaly focussed and fired a few shots at their thoraxes, killing them quickly before they could reach them.

'Why…why does there have to be _so many_ bugs where we're going?' Aurora complained.

'Relax; the first group of them down there have been taken out. The next few on the way to Tiny Tina's workshop can easily be avoided,' the Anomaly assured her.

'You're sure?'

'I think you can get past a phobia if it means we can save Gaige. We _need_ that rocket fuel.'

Aurora went pale but nodded avidly. He was certainly right that they needed to focus, rather than get worked up over some fear. Yet, it wasn't irrational in her eyes.

 _Those bugs have those ugly eyes with those…thrashing mandibles with a voice that is just…uh! I hate those things! And they hover towards you, those massive flies…_

She shook her head, erasing those thoughts from her brain. Aurora could not afford to get distracted. Not while Gaige was on Elpis and suffering. The Vault Hunter may not have been the best of terms with the Mechromancer, but she knew that the girl didn't deserve to suffer and be tortured.

They walked down the hill towards the mountainous structure that Tiny Tina's place was built into. Walking down past the Varkid nests, both of them were pleased that no more of the ugly insects emerged from them.

Tiny Tina's alcove was built into the other side of the structure. They had to go around, which meant they would have to get uncomfortably close to another Varkid nest and would have to keep their distance from the Buzzard academy, as well as the smaller bandit base near to the entrance too. Caution was recommended. Pandoran fauna and locals tended to be quite aggressive, especially when it came to territories.

Their feet made quiet crunching sounds in the light, melting snow that was slowly fading the further they went down the hill. You'd have to strain to hear it.

'How was last night, Matty?' Aurora asked him casually. 'I didn't hear any screaming, so I'm _assuming_ you didn't have any nightmares.' The Anomaly hesitated on the question, unsure if he should tell her about his vision. He'd told her about the last one, so he supposed it was no trouble bringing it up.

'I'm not sure if I can really call it a _nightmare,_ per se,' replied the Vault Hunter, honestly. Aurora tilted her head in confusion, prompting him to elaborate. 'The thing is…' He stopped walking. 'I saw Amelia.' The Revolverslinger instantly froze.

'I'd say that it's nightmare when you see your sister being…' She couldn't quite bring herself to say it.

'Not like that.'

'Then what do you –'

'She was…calling out to me. She wanted to me to _find_ her. Like, Amelia said…she was "waiting for me."' Matt indicated to her that he was OK by holding up his hand in assurance, simultaneously implying that he was fine with talking about it.

'So…did your brain just…come up with that?' The young woman inquired as lightly as possible.

'Amelia died a while ago. Why would my brain be bringing her up like this now?' He reasoned.

'You still have nightmares about her murder.'

'Yeah, but not ones where she's directly addressing me like that,' the Anomaly pointed out.

'You don't think it was just a dream, do you?' His best friend figured out.

'I think it was another vision,' Matt agreed, earning an argumentative look from Aurora. He raised his hand in front of her again to tell her to let him elucidate further. 'I know, I know, Amelia's dead and there's no way she's alive. But it felt too _real_ to be a mere dream. It felt as real as the vision I had of the Vault, and us going to take it down. People don't just come back from being shot in the head twice, I know. However, it can't have been anything other than another revelation thanks to my Siren link.'

'So you don't deny she's gone?' They took a right to face the mountain edifice off in the immediate distance.

'Not quite. Her body's dead, no doubt about it; a body simply cannot survive its brains being splattered.' He had visible difficulty in getting out that statement. 'But I think…I know this sounds crazy, but I think…her soul lives on.'

'Matty, I hate to burst your bubble, but that sounds like wishful thinking,' the Revolverslinger commented despondently.

'Probably,' the Anomaly admitted. However, if there's a chance in the world that even an _inkling_ of her still subsists on, then I wanna believe it.'

'Just don't get desperate because you still don't want to be powerless again.'

'Yeah.'

'What?' She teased, 'No inspirational speech about powerlessness?' He actually laughed a bit.

'I had no idea I'd built up that kind of expectation from you, 'Ora!' The Vault Hunter joked.

'You speak your mind! You could address the entire galaxy with those words of yours!'

'I could. Because no matter what, I have to stand tall. You what I would say if I was talking to every single person in the galaxy?'

'What?' She asked eagerly.

'To those who have fallen: **I am still standing.** '

His astuteness and heroic traits never ceased to impress her. She understood why he believed that he could never abandon his beliefs, and why he believed he had to stay alive. While he would freely give his own life to save others, Aurora knew that Matt believed that in any other situation, he would _have_ to stay alive.

Purely because of all the people whom he was carrying on his shoulders. Because of everything that had happened to him. Matt believed he needed to stay standing to carry on the tale of his past, to carry on with the weight of his deceased loved ones and awful experiences. To prove that one could still live on no matter what trauma you may have gone through. So no one would have to feel the same pain.

To any that would doubt: **he was still standing.**

That's who Matt Rye was. That was why she loved him so dearly. That was why he was the Anomaly.

Aurora suddenly enveloped him in a warm hug, which caught him by surprise and they stopped walking. The woman was not entirely certain what emotion she was feeling right now. Was it pride? Was it happiness? Was it love?

''Ora, you can let go of me now.'

She ignored him. Her instinctual desire was cling onto him forever, not for fear of losing him, but something else. Maybe it _was_ because she was proud of him.

'You know, Matty, you're the most important person to me in the world,' she thought aloud. Matt was stunned by his best friend's display of affection.

'R-really?!' Aurora's eyes widened. She pulled back but was still holding onto him.

'Di…Did I say that out loud?!' She questioned frantically. Matt was so nervous that he could only force a nod.

'W-well, sh-shouldn't we, um, get going?' He swiftly changed the subject. 'I-I think Tina's waiting for us, so we, uh, we best not waste time!' The Anomaly suddenly picked up his pace, walking much faster than before, but it was by no means speed-walking. Aurora managed to gather back her senses, and caught with him.

* * *

That hurt. Actually, saying "that hurt" made it sound petty. Like it was discomforting, and only lasted a second. Definitely not. It was like a thousand knives were stabbing her at the same time, each having been heated substantially before, to the temperature of a flame.

'That was only half of the perhexiline, you know,' Three told her, with a hint of wonder in her voice, as if she expected it to hurt less.

Gaige didn't really care. She wasn't planning on telling her anything about Marcie, for sure. While Matt had thankfully given her some thorough advice about it, it was still a memory that she didn't like to remember. Three already knew there was something she was hiding about her past, which the chemist was trying to bring up, so it wasn't like the memory was going to stay hidden for long.

But it _had_ to.

'S-shut up, Three,' she managed to squeak out. The Mechromancer hated how raspy and weak her voice sounded.

Three tilted her head at her, and began writing.

* * *

 **Patient appears to have an essence of willpower, given that half of the perhexiline is not enough to break her. She appears to have had a much more intense reaction to the drug however.**

 **NOTE: Most subjected to the drug do not survive past three injections. A select few have, but a lot begin to go insane after second dosage of the more potent version.**

* * *

At this point, Gaige didn't care what she was writing. All that mattered was getting through this to see the light of day.

Though many had fallen, she was still standing.

Although not literally. The Vault Hunter was still tied down to the operating table with several tight leather buckles. They had no doubt given her several red marks, but that was the least of her problems.

'So about your past –'

'No.'

'In order for you to realize something about yourself, you must first delve into the past,' Three advised.

'My past is my past. I've moved on since then.'

'Then why is it such a sore subject for you?' She pressed, leaning forward from her chair triumphantly. Gaige neglected to answer that question, not certain what she could say to that.

'Some things are personal, you know,' she stated confidently, although it was obvious the question had her defeated.

'We still have two and a half injections to go,' Sharp's third in command reminded her. She was picked the half-empty first needle up from the desk and squeezed it slightly, causing some of the perhexiline to squirt out. Gaige knew it was to intimidate her, which succeeded minimally.

The drug caused an excessive amount of pain, so she would not be looking forward to experiencing that again. However, she had the drive to get through it, even if she was being insecure about her past. Gaige also did not want anything for Gemini to take advantage of. She may have already failed a bit at that by revealing her relationship with Matt, she later realised, but adding fuel to the fire was not going to do anything. And as they say, if you play with fire, you're gonna get burned.

'I guess you'll be one injection down then,' the Mechromancer cheekily replied. Three wanted to reprimand her for her insolence, but she admitted in her head that she enjoyed a little injecting the perhexiline. She wasn't sadistic like Violet or anything; it was just that Three liked seeing someone attempt to cope with the pain and seeing their willpower in action.

'Very well.' She moved over to her and placed the needle firmly against Gaige's arm and slowly inoculated her with the perhexiline.

Gaige the Mechromancer forced herself not to cry out, as the white-hot pain shot through her entire body in just three seconds. She didn't care; getting through this was all that mattered.

* * *

Aurora and Matt casually entered Tiny Tina's workshop, inspecting every element of the place for any traps. Tina knew they were coming, so one might assume there were no booby traps, however, it was probably _because_ she knew they were coming that she might've set them.

They spotted Tina in her workshop. The gutter wasn't down, so she was probably checking over some of her explosives. There were two badonkadonks near the Marcus Guns vendor in the bottom right corner.

'Yo, Tina!' Matt called. Tiny Tina heard the voice and smiled a little. She spun around over-emphatically and skipped out of her workshop.

'T'sup sucka?' She greeted in her usual overjoyed tone. 'Lili told you was comin'!'

'You know her _this_ well already?' Aurora asked, but then corrected herself. ' _Of course_ you do.'

'Who's this lovely ladeh?' Tina asked. 'Gotta tell yas, she is _not_ lacking the chest region!'

'Tina!' Matt scolded, as his best friend covered her chest a little.

'Ah, soz dude.'

'It's um, it's Aurora,' she informed her nervously, hesitantly reaching out her hand for a handshake. Tiny Tina took it and shook it rigorously, jerking Aurora back and forth uncontrollably.

'Nice to meet ya Rory!' The young girl welcomed pointedly. Right when Aurora was about to complain about how she messed up her name, Matt started talking again.

'Then you know why we're here? For some rocket fuel?'

'100 percent, Mattie-boy! I have some in the back; I'll be right back, sucka!' The thirteen-year-old then proceeded to walk around the back area of her workshop to look. 'I'm running, running, running! I'm running over here! I'm running to find my rocket fuel for my friend's rockeeeet!' The sing-song tone was humorous to say the least.

'Did she really just call you "Mattie-boy" or am I hearing things?' The Revolverslinger probed, stunned by it somehow.

'Tina refuses to call me anything else other than sucka.'

'But…c'mon!'

'Just let her. It's cute.'

'But _I'm_ the one who gets to be cute.'

'You're hardly cute, Aurora,' he told her stiffly.

'What?!'

'It's not what you're known for. Besides, you don't need to be.'

'But –'

'And if anyone's cute, it's Gaige.'

Aurora harrumphed fervently at that. Ultimately, though, she knew it was pointless to argue with Matt. They'd just be wasting precious time. That was something they could afford to lose so recklessly.

 _Yike_ s. She thought, _Perhaps it IS in my nature to think impulsively like that._

'Aw, crapsickles!' Cursed a voice from behind the workshop. Tina definitely sounded bummed as she trudged back from around her workshop.

'What is it?' Matt asked nervously, tensing.

'Those bandit idiots stole some of my fuel! Look, they left this bitty little note!' Tiny Tina moaned, flailing a piece of paper in her hands that clearly read:

* * *

 _Dear girl of whittle exploshions,_

 _We've taken your roket fool for our own need. Sorry for the inkonveenience, hopes you can get sum moor._

 _Sinseerly, the Fleshrippers._

* * *

Aurora examined it, and depressingly nodded.

'Yeah, it's from the bandits alright.' Matt charged up red and black lightning in around his body and punched the rock wall. It left an indent.

'Yo leave my pad alones, man!' Tina complained.

'Oh, um…sorry.'

'It's OK, Matty, we'll just have to raid the Buzzard academy to get it back,' Aurora reassured him.

'Yeah! They called my explosions "little"! Or at least, I thinks they did…' The thirteen-year-old added.

'How dare they…' Aurora emphasised jokingly. Matt sighed loudly as to catch their attention.

'It's just one roadblock after another,' he murmured, although they both heard him. Some thought crossed his mind and he suddenly got even angrier. 'Wait, Tina…how in the _hell_ did they even manage to get their hands on your fuel anyway?!'

'Oh well…I _did_ have some of them around for tea earlier and –'

'You what?!' The Anomaly interjected. 'Why the _fuck_ would you even _consider_ that?!'

'They said they wouldn't try anyt'ing!' Tina protested, still with an inflection of insanity. 'Them suckas musta nabbed it when I wan't lookin'!' **(A/N:** **Just as a side note, it is** ** _so_** **fun writing Tiny Tina's lines!)**

'Tina…!' Matt exclaimed, disappointed. He ran his hands through his brown hair frantically.

'We _just_ said that all we'd need to do is go to the Buzzard academy and get it back!' Aurora reminded. 'Ease up, you know?'

'Sorry…' he apologized. 'What do they even _need_ rocket fuel for anyway?'

'Dunno, dude,' Tiny Tina commented. 'Ta guzzle down?'

'It'd take a couple hours to refrigerate,' Aurora realised. 'So if they are, then they wouldn't have drunk it yet.'

'Well then there's a silver lining!' Matt emphasised, with a renewed sense of vigour.

'I'll stay here, Mattie-boy,' the small girl told him, spinning around to go over to her table next to Sir Reginald, purveyor of the fine arts.

'Some water, Sir Reginald?' She asked her teddy bear, one of her eyes going walleyed, as if she had a squint.

Today had been, and still was, a weird day.

* * *

 **Hope that was good! I had to do some of my own research about perhexiline (the drug), although I had to change a few things – which I can just say changed about the drug at some point in the future – about it so that I would make more sense for it to be used a torture weapon. For example, perhexiline (aforementioned) today is served as a white bevelled tablet, but here it is a liquid.**

 **It's also cool that I am getting some more reviews, and that they're positive. It's great that this isn't awful, and that I have got the characters mostly down – since I was so worried about them not being believable in the beginning.**

 **And as I said, it's really fun writing Tiny Tina's lines, because her sheer inanity and absolute insanity really serves to lighten up the mood of the story, since a lot of this has been quite dreary since Gaige's been kidnapped.**

 **As an extra note, the bandits' illiteracy always gets me. "Inkonveenience" is spelt so horribly that you can honestly understand why they think "piss" is spelt "pis" and "invisible" is spelt "invisibl" too. It is gonna be fun to use this as a bit of source of humour next chapter.**

 **Do review!**


	21. Battlefront

**This took a while to make, considering there were a few points where I wasn't sure exactly how it would play out. (Even with my plan to help me.) It's around 5.5k words, so not as much as some previous chapters, and I have continue my plan for this anyway, however, it's here now.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-One: Battlefront**

* * *

Matt and Aurora looked out at the Buzzard academy not too far away. It wouldn't be too easy finding where the rocket fuel was refrigerated. It wasn't like they had some fuel detector or anything.

If that was even a thing.

Bandits were notoriously stupid when it came to common sense. Or literacy. Yeah, one could argue that Nomads were decent tacticians, but that was all they really had going for them. When you start refrigerating rocket fuel so you can drink it, you know that you aren't too right in the head.

Their guns were sub-par at best, too. They preferred to pack guns with a massive clips, but awful accuracy with often mediocre damage. Additionally, that was why Bandit snipers weren't even conceivable.

You'd probably have to use an E-Tech homing Bandit weapon in order to get some decent damage in. But then you wouldn't be able to score critical hits, making them pretty bad, given how much damage can be boosted by scoring hits in critical spots.

Both Matt and Aurora preferred S&S Munitions.

Another thing about bandits was their aforementioned illiteracy. "Inconvenience" was probably the largest word in their vocabulary. And there was no chance in hell that they were going to spell it correctly.

 _"_ _Inkonveenience,_ " Matt thought laughably, _yep, that's right. Just sound it sound it out guys, because the English language is definitely PURELY_ _phonetic._

The Anomaly knew he was just procrastinating a little. He didn't want to have to go through with this. While he probably would have helped Tina regardless of if the end goal was to save Gaige, Matt didn't like killing weak enemies mindlessly.

He slapped his cheeks with both of his hands at once. This was for Gaige, so his personal preference was irrelevant. He had to focus.

So did Aurora. Their conversation on the way to the workshop didn't quite finish. It had been silent since she had accidently told him how much he mattered to her. There was also the fundamental fact that Matt was right: it _was_ just one roadblock after another. It was like they couldn't get into the fast lane.

She mentally slapped herself, rather than draw attention to herself like Matt had moments ago.

A few Marauders were walking around, holding their guns casually. One of them walked into one of the buildings and came back out again with a deck of cards. He sat down at a table with a few others and they began to play a game with poker, using Torgue tokens as the betting frame.

It was interesting to watch. Although, Matt wondered how they got Torgue tokens to begin with. A few minutes passed by before the first round ended.

'Straight flush!' one of the Marauders declared happily, throwing down his cards. It was true. He had a five, six, seven, eight and nine of spades. He must've been lucky with his hits, then.

'Too lucky!' One of his friends yelled.

'Cheater!' Another accused.

'Calm down, I'm the dealer, and I didn't see nothin',' the final Marauder assured the others. They still threw accusatory looks at one another, but continued to play anyway.

If there was a perfect time to attack, it was now. The Marauders were distracted by the avid game that was going on, so they would have the element of surprise. It might have been a possibly for stealth, using their C-Digistructors, but they had left those in the Dahl jump-ship, so they were not in access of them.

Besides, someone would notice a container of rocket fuel floating in air.

The Anomaly and the Revolverslinger sneaked by the entrance, and threw a homing child-spawning grenade at the large group of Marauders. As Aurora threw it, she made sure to be careful with it so that the sound of it would not make too much noise and attract them before it was too late.

Abruptly, the grenade did exactly what it was intended to do: explode. Following the initial explosion, eight child grenades spawned from it and homed in the remaining Marauders and Psychos. The bandits were dispatched fast from it, allowing Matt and Aurora to move quickly through the compound without being disturbed. It would not be long before they got what they needed.

'Over there!' Matt warned her, pointing to their right, where a large amount of Marauders were. Swiftly, they noticed the two Vault Hunters, and did not seem altogether friendly towards them. Which wasn't unexpected. They pointed to their guns out at them, forcing them to get behind cover to avoid the bullets.

This was not going to be too much of a problem for Matt in particular. He'd taken care of worse than bandits. He'd handled five Vault Hunters on him at once. He could fight Lilith and hold his own (if she wasn't trying to kill him). Bandits were a pathetic excuse of an enemy; almost an insult.

'Why won't you die?!' One of the Marauders yelled disgruntledly.

'Let's agree to disagree!' A Psycho added, in the general psychotic tone.

Having had enough the bandits' bothersome chatter, he activated his Chronokinesis, and ran into them. It did not take long for the Anomaly to kill them, using mainly a combination of snapped necks and sheer force. In a time that seemed less than a microsecond, the small army of bandits had been taken out.

'Save some for _meeee_ ,' Aurora moaned. She elided that she had already killed a few with her own shots, opting to act as if he had done all the work.

Buzzards flew overhead.

'You can get them if you wanted to…' Matt cheekily suggested, throwing her his Hornet. He switched to his Chimera.

Aurora sighed, but she supposed the three Buzzards that were circling them wouldn't be too much a problem. Without hesitation, she fired down the sights at all of them, destroyed the vehicles in moments. The Anomaly made a high "hm" sound to emphasise that he was impressed and pleased with her.

They continued through the compound, trying to catch a whiff of rocket fuel. It had a strong, distinct smell. They were killing enemies left and right, but had to be certain to leave at least one behind that could elude to them where it was.

Confusingly, there were some pancakes on a table nearby, which had shrapnel over it.

 **(A/N: Bandits have had pancakes set out before, why not now? Just thought it was fun a little comedic to add it in, since I don't want this entire plot thread to be so depressing.)**

'Ooh!' A voice over the ECHO marvelled. Tina. 'Bring some of dat back! I'll need it for latas…'

Exhaling with mutual boredom, Matt reluctantly brushed off the shrapnel and placed the food into his ECHO device and labelled them as temporary. He got a weird sense of déjà vu, but shook it off.

'Thanks, Mattie-boy!' Tina acknowledged. The Anomaly only grunted a hum of content. Aurora ignored their exchange. Instead, she followed a smell of rocket fuel to a nearby building, which an Elite Marauder exited out of. The Vault Hunter put her away her gun. He spotted her, but she swiftly threw the gun out his hand and put him in a tight arm hold. The Marauder twisted in pain.

'The rocket fuel,' she simply commanded, to which her enemy responded to by struggling in her grasp. 'Where is it?'

'S-screw you!' He replied uncouthly, wincing when Aurora tightened the hold and increased the pain.

'Do you wanna stay alive?' She threatened.

'How do I know you won't kill after I tell you where it is?'

 _Shit._ She groaned. _This bandit's smarter than I thought._

'I'm a woman of my word, promise,' the Revolverslinger assured him, nodding to Matt to tell him to put away his gun. The Marauder sighed, accepting that the rocket fuel wasn't really to die for, in more ways than one.

'In the fridge, through there, next to the skag meat,' he informed her. Aurora nodded and knocked him out with her re-equipped Veruc assault rifle that she'd borrowed from Matt. While she promised not to kill him, Aurora never said anything about hurting him in any way.

 _Hm…_ the Vault Hunter mused comically, _guess you aren't THAT smart!_

Matt walked past her as she smiled triumphantly, and lifted up the fabric tarp over doorway to reveal an inchoate living space with an amply large fridge in the corner which was running on a single-cell E-Battery. He pulled open the fridge and saw a massive can of rocket fuel stuffed into corner next to the aforementioned skag meat.

Bandits weren't known for neatness.

Aurora entered soon after, laughing upon sight of him hauling the large can of rocket fuel out the sizeable fridge. Initially, the Revolverslinger opted not to help him, however did when he threw an apoplectic glare at her for her uncooperativeness.

'Jesus, how heavy is this damn thing?!' The female Vault Hunter strained, struggling to find a better grip on the mini-tank of a can.

'Did you get the fuel?' Tiny Tina asked excitedly over the ECHO.

'Yep,' the Anomaly simply replied.

'Nice work, sucka! Come on back with dem _pancake-ees_!' She celebrated, causing him to snigger over her childish name for pancakes.

* * *

Carrying heavy fuel all the way to Tina's workshop had not been fun at all. Aurora's back almost gave way a few times, and she was only carrying half of the weight alongside her best friend. Neither of them complained though, since carrying a heavy container was the least of their problems, especially considering that it meant that they could save Gaige with it.

Tina was pleased about the pancakes, though. She placed them between Sir Reginald and Princess Fluffybutt, kindly offering Matt one. He politely declined, saying that it was for her. Although, it was clear to Aurora that he did not want to try pancakes that had been made by bandits and also had shrapnel on it at some point.

'Now you got me these delicacies, you can _definitely_ take dat fuel to save that Rage girl.' They knew she meant Gaige, but it was kinda cute that she butchered her name too.

'Thanks, Tina,' Matt accredited, cautiously patting her on the head. She accepted the gesture.

'Think of it as me repaying ya!' The explosives expert modestly responded. 'I am so glad ya helped me, Mattie-boy. You too, Rory!'

'My name's not…actually, it's fine,' the Revolverslinger decided, realising that most of this girl's idiosyncrasies were adorable and funny. Even when she said some…less than savoury things.

'Yeah, you've been a real help today, _Rory_ ,' the Anomaly teased her.

'Stick to 'Ora, _Mattie-boy_ ,' the young woman teased back. Both of them chuckled about their mocking of one another quite a fair bit, while Tina maintained a smile of exuberant glee.

'Guess we better be heading back now,' the male Vault Hunter edged off the subject, sparing an irritated glance at the can of rocket fuel. 'We're gonna have to carry that all the way back to the fast travel.' Aurora sighed.

'I really wish that our ECHOs would carry something so heavy,' she grumbled. The Anomaly nodded, but he switched back to an ecstatic, restlessly happy look which almost lit up the entire room all on its own.

'Well, c'mon then! No rest for the wicked!' He motioned for her to help him carry it, and grabbed a side of can and picked it up with him.

They walked as steadily and as quickly as they could, not wanting to waste any more time now that the chance to rescue Gaige was fully in their grasp. Axton hadn't said much about his repairs on the jump-ship, though anything he _did_ say were entirely positive.

'See ya, ma dudes!' Tina bid farewell, waving her hand so pointedly it probably just made her wrist hurt. If it did, she didn't care.

Matt and Aurora waved back, before getting on their way out. The Pandoran Sun was shining on them, a beam of angelic light beckoning to continue on their path. They made a left turn, trudging through the grass and wincing at the weight of the object they were carrying.

Certainly, it was hard to move quickly like this, but they tried their best. Every so often, one of them would attempt to find better grip on the can to relieve some pain, or switch hands, just so they would not drop it. It was also getting harder not to set off any Varkids nearby, which was more of a problem for Aurora than for Matt.

'Matty?' She finally gained the nerve to strike up a conversation.

'Yeah?'

'You know what you said before, about lying?'

'Yes…?'

'Do you ever wonder which is worse: lying to yourself, or to others?'

'Personally, I don't think you can categorise them under a lesser of two evils. They're mostly the same to me.'

'I feel like, lying to yourself would be worse, you know? It's like you're trying to convince yourself of a false ideal because you desperately want to cower away from the truth. The way I see it is that, if you're willing to lie to yourself, then you're kinda stooping to a new low.'

'I suppose,' Matt agreed. 'But lying to others can be terrible too. You see, convincing someone of something can be a bit like a domino chain. Depending on that one thing is, it can lead to them taking an action because of it, which then leads to someone else doing something, and then another and so on. Eventually that leads to a climax, where you reach the point of no return.

'It's another thing I feel like some people fail to see. The ability to speak and, of course, lie is an incredibly powerful thing when you think about it. You can shape the entire world around you. You can make kingdoms fall, armies surrender, champions lose, and governments collapse, all with just words. A few, at that.

'It was like how you convinced that bandit to tell you where the rocket fuel was. You lied about not harming him.' Aurora gave him a look of objection. 'You did _imply_ that you weren't going to harm him.' She gave in at that statement. 'Exactly. You changed the world around you and the actions of others through lying and just talking. That's how powerful it really is.'

'Sometimes that power just to _speak_ can even be a bit _too_ powerful. It may cause things you weren't intending, or things you didn't want. That's the power of communication. It's the power to be deceptive.

'I say that you lie to yourself when you lie to others, however in hindsight, you can't really ever _completely_ lie to yourself. Not while you're mentally stable, that is. No matter how times you strengthen the webbing _on_ the web of lies, there'll always be a part of your mind that knows it's not true. A part of your mind that doubts, and plagues your mind about your dishonesty.

'To lie to yourself is to wish. To wish is to yearn. And to yearn is to beg. By lying to yourself, all you're doing is begging for things to be different. You beg for it so bad that you end up trying to convince yourself it's true. However, as I said, it never really works.

'When you lie to others, though, it's not always selfish. There are white lies. However, and I've said this before, telling a white lie is just blinding someone from the reality, which is unhelpful to them in the long run. You don't always _want_ to tell them the truth for fear of how they might react. Yet, people don't seem to understand that they _need_ to know – regardless of what potential reaction – so they don't go and construct some false image of the world around them.

'So as to which one is worse, I think both of them are equal.'

'It was simple question,' Aurora joked. 'Didn't need to make it into some' – she gritted her teeth as the difficulty with carrying the can reached its maximum – ' _speech!_ '

'Um, sorry!' Matt laughed off. 'That whole thing just…came to me.' The Revolverslinger laughed at that, to which he joined in.

The Anomaly coming out with sagacious shit like that and emphasising long-ass speeches were starting to seem normal. Which was weird, considering his title meant he had to be abnormal. What he said carried a lot of weight behind them, which was understandable considering the Anomaly's past. The Vault Hunter had been lied to, and had lied as well, possibly to himself a few times.

Yet this kind of wise understanding of the world around him only started to appear after the Gulag incident, which seemed like a distant memory now. Maya had claimed his Siren connection had really come to forefront after he stopped time. Like, it had awakened after a long hibernation since the Genisys Project.

Speaking of stopping time, Matt had also been trying to find a way to do it again. He had tried to hone in on his emotions at the time, but he got the feeling it wasn't just his emotions that triggered it. The Anomaly had figured out that since it was a fight or flight situation, his adrenaline was pumping and therefore he subconsciously removed the limiters on his powers for a moment.

That made sense. However, at the time, the Vault Hunter could feel his friends' emotions at the time, as if he was connected to them. Perhaps it really depended on how he felt, how _they_ felt, and how willing the Anomaly was the stay alive.

Even so, the young man had studied quite a bit on what stopping time might do. His strength and power output would be decreased, since he'd only be using his energy to add force and not the fact that he was moving incredibly fast. However, it did mean he could think infinitely times faster than anyone around him – contingent on how long he could keep it up.

 _If I stop time, that makes more powerful than any Vault Hunter around,_ he realised, _but I can't keep it up for long._

'So, Matty, it looks like Gaige is going to be saved after all!' His best friend claimed wildly, immediately causing his head to snap to look at her.

'You bet!' He exclaimed loudly. 'I'm letting Gaige go through any more torture.'

'You're certain that's what they're doing to her?'

''Course. Anything to get me back. And you,' he settled decisively. Aurora nodded to that, but did not reply.

They had made their way around the Tina's workshop, a fair distance away from the Varkid Ranch Observatory, when the Revolverslinger's grip slipped and the can dropped onto Matt's toe. Matt made a painful groan, but didn't cry out or clutch it, jumping around in emphasis. Although, it was clear to Aurora that it had hurt.

'I-I'm sorry!' The young woman apologised, hauling of the rocket fuel can off of his foot to inspect it.

'It's fine, Aurora,' the Anomaly just assured.

'But if I hadn't –'

'You're worrying again,' Matt warned her.

'What's so wrong about worrying? It's just how you show you care!'

'Perhaps, however that doesn't mean you have to get stressed out when the _slightest_ detail goes wrong!' The Anomaly argued, leaning back down to pick up the can again.

'Sometimes I just wonder if I'm getting in the way…' The female Vault Hunter abruptly commented, looking down, crestfallen.

'Aurora…! You never get in the way! You're useful, caring, and above all, you're determined!'

'It's just…I don't matter, really. _You do_.'

'What?! You think you get to decide who is important and who isn't? Life doesn't work that way. You do whatever you can to help, that means you matter, in my opinion.'

'Look at you and then look at _me_. Matt: you're the Anomaly, one of the most powerful people in the universe, probably. You're connected to Sirens, you have a subconscious link to the Vault, you know almost everyone on Pandora and they seem to like you. _You_ are important. Me? I'm just in the background, I might as well be a cardboard cut-out.'

Matt was having none of this.

'"Just in the background"? Are you kidding me?' The young man emphasised. 'I'm sorry, _who_ was there for me when I'd get all depressed about my sister? _Who_ was there when I'd start blaming myself for everything? _Who_ was there while I'd scream in my sleep and wake up panting? _Who_ was there when I found out Caine was the one who made the bomb that almost killed me? Tell me, Aurora!'

The Revolverslinger almost dropped the can again, leaning backwards in shock.

'Answer: _you!_ _You_ were, 'Ora! I _said_ the power of words is unspoken! **(A/N: Ha, irony)** Yours have always helped me! A cardboard _cut-out_ couldn't do that! Stop underestimating yourself because you matter to me more than almost anyone! Hell, maybe more than Gaige!'

That outburst really shocked her. The young woman had no idea that the Anomaly thought of her so highly. Certainly, some of his rant was fuelled by what she'd said earlier about him mattering to her more than anyone else. She'd constantly doubted herself, not realising that Matt really did care about her.

Those doubts started pouring into her mind when Matt left Gemini. At the time, she was angry, but slowly uncertainties began seeping in about how good she was as a friend if she couldn't stop him from leaving the corporation they'd both worked so hard at. The Revolverslinger found herself wondering a few times if it was her fault, partly. She didn't understand why he left, so her mind just decided to come up with its own excuse.

More than likely, that feeling had been bolstered when Matt did not reciprocate her love. Secretly, the young woman had been wondering if she had done something wrong. Aurora had not been unclear that she didn't understand how he could not, but hid the fact that she distrusted herself about how good of a person she was, even after Matt had assured her that they could still be friends.

And here he was again, picking her back up once more. Hopefully, she'd stop falling. Yes, Aurora still loved him dearly and wanted to be with him, however the Vault Hunter had accepted that her best friend loved Gaige.

'Thanks, Matty. I think I feel better now,' the young woman reassured him, giving him a tight hug despite the fact they were still carrying the can.

Matt exhaled a sigh of relief. Alexander hadn't been wrong when he said that Aurora still loved him and not all was OK with her. She was perhaps as skilled as Three when it came to hiding her true emotions.

'Come on, they're waiting for us.'

* * *

Axton was working avidly on the Dahl jump-ship, tweaking a few things here and there. Scooter was providing most of the leg work, considering he knew far more about engines than he did. Lilith was inside the ship, inspecting elements with the system UI it provided. She told them any of the problems the error detection system was identifying.

It was promising. There were only a few errors to fix, and while they'd taken a long time, it wasn't because they were difficult, just long-winded.

He wondered how Aurora and Matt were getting on. They should've been back by now. Surely carrying a fuel tank wouldn't take an hour? The Commando didn't want to think there was something wrong, however it didn't make sense that it was taking so long. Tina could be overbearing, sure, but that shouldn't distract them from their mission.

'Axton? It's blinking red in the corner!' Lilith warned. He entered the ship and she pointed to where she was talking about. It was a red triangle with an exclamation mark in the centre. Swiftly, the Vault Hunter tapped it and it text appeared beside it claiming that there was a "CIRCUIT FAILURE" that needed to be tended to immediately.

'Ah, crap,' he cursed. 'Scooter! I need you to hotwire the engine.'

'Okay, man! But I gotta warn ya, I'm used to doing that with cars not rockets!' The mechanic replied.

'Just do it, will ya?' Lilith convinced.

'You got eet!' He went round to the front of the rocket to observe the engine circuit.

'Right, when I say go, hold down that button there,' Axton ordered her, pointing to one on the control panel.

'OK,' Lilith simply replying, deciding not to argue with him for giving her orders. He went under the left side of the control panel, just beside her, and opened up a panel under it. Carefully, the Commando reached his hand through until he found a safety wire, and pressed it down.

Scooter was messing around with the circuit still, which was making Lilith feel uneasy. She had only one job at the moment, so the potential to mess it up was weighing on her mind a little. It was such a simple job that she was worried she'd do something wrong.

' _Now!'_ Axton called from under the control panel. Lilith didn't hesitate in holding down the button, relieved she hadn't screwed it up. The blinking warning sign turned green, and said, "CIRCUIT REBOOT COMPLETE. SYSTEMS NOMINAL."

 _Brilliant,_ the Commando thought, _now the only thing left is the fuel. Goddammit, where are you Matt?!_

Patience was a virtue but Axton wasn't known for having it in bounds. It should not be taking them so long. How difficult must it be to collect some fuel from Tiny Tina and come back? Aurora may have a thing against bugs, but he expected her to put that aside for the sake of rescuing Gaige.

And it was starting to get stuffy in the Dahl hanger. Turned out that the storage area doubled as a hanger, which had made sense. Axton didn't know that since he'd never actually _been_ on a Dahl excavation trip before so had never used one of their jump-ships. He just knew of them.

Soon enough, Operation "Get Gaige Back from those Gemini Dicks" would be in full swing.

* * *

She was being stabbed. Ten thousand red-hot knives were plunging into her at regular intervals. Her body cried out for the pain to end. Her mind was struggling to maintain any semblance of focus on the world around her. How much more could she take before she broke? Yeah, she was being stabbed.

To tell the truth, Gaige wasn't, actually. The enhanced perhexiline was just so realistic with the pain it induced. Her mind knew it to be false but her body took it to be the reality. Spasms racked her frail state, her shaking only being suppressed by the tight leather bounds all around her limbs.

Screaming out was something the Mechromancer wanted nothing more than to do. But her voice box no longer belonged to her apparently, since it stayed quiet and no sound escaped from her mouth.

Through the newly-realized cacophony of agony the drug was inflicting upon her, Gaige could see Three was still sitting on the same pristine white chair. Still, she was examining her reaction, and writing something down every so often, or just staring intently. The third in command certainly wasn't doing it for pleasure; she was generally interested in how the girl was taking all the effects the perhexiline was causing.

Even despite the torture, Gaige was adamant about not revealing her past, not even sharing an inch or clarifying anything or disclosing even a _second_ of her past. No good would come from it.

However, the pain was starting to make her yearn for Matt. She knew she could survive without him, but more and more of her was begging to lie in bed with him. Was that unsurprising? The Mechromancer didn't know.

Three, though, was incredibly surprised. Surprised by what she was observing. This was the second full dosage of perhexiline. She'd given half, and the girl refused to talk. She'd given the _other_ half, and _still_ this impudent child repudiated to say anything. Most people went insane by the second dosage, but Three could see that Gaige was completely sane. It was ineffably excruciating, yes, yet the girl was still firmly stable.

* * *

 **Unbelievably, Gaige "the Mechromancer" shows uncommon mental strength against the pain of the enhanced perhexiline. She is firmly hinged despite being in complete agony, and only a select few have exhibited such willpower. Although, it is unclear where this willpower comes from and it only serves to put a dent in Commander Sharp's plan. May have to resort to third dosage.**

* * *

Most people ended up trying to commit suicide after being injected with the third one.

She had a full three pages of notes in her digi-book now, and they all began to hint more and more at the kind of person Gaige was.

It surprised her, but it wasn't completely unseen.

Gaige's pain went on for another few minutes, indicated by her involuntary spasm which ceased after that time. She was breathing heavily, trying to readjust after her second full dosage of perhexiline.

'Do you plan on telling me anything, Miss Gaige?' Three asked her in the most condescending, sanctimonious way.

'Nope, definitely not, piss-for-brains!' The Mechromancer declared triumphantly. Three was definitely taken aback now by this girl's confidence and snarky behaviour that remained even after being subjected to some serious stuff.

So she did the only thing that seemed right: Three slapped her. Hard.

'Don't address me in that way, bitch!' She scolded, showing a rare anger.

'Whatever…' Gaige ignored. 'Gemini, Hyperion, Dahl, you're all the same. You're underhanded, corrupt, selfish and very, _very_ blind!'

'What makes you say that?'

'I'm not a little girl you know, so do you really think some stupid drug is going to keep me from staying sane and determined to get out of here? If you do, then you must be low in experience points. You'll need some more XP before you can level up.'

'Insignificant girl…'

'If I was insignificant, then you wouldn't bother capturing me,' the Mechromancer pointed out.

'I guess I'll have to go to three. I did warn you.' Three _did_ warn her, but since when did Gaige listen?

Either way, Gemini weren't going to keep her for long. And they certainly weren't going to stand a chance with someone like Matt Rye in their way.

* * *

 **Another chapter finished! Not to be sadistic, but I enjoyed writing the Gaige parts, although mainly because of what happens in them. I'm also leading up to a reveal that I've been sitting on for ages now. Her dialogue can be fun considering she compares her experiences to gaming aspects and shit like that. A bit like how she called Two a noob and then called him a pro. Aren't I _ever_ so relevant?**

 **Also, another bit of insight into Matt's mind following that speech he gave. I suppose it's continued from his previous speech about deception, but more providing intuition on what happens when you lie to someone. It really is a domino chain. And you can topple whole armies with mere words. It's just quite difficult.**

 **By the way, the talk about Bandit weapons at the start was mostly my own personal experience with them. Lets just say that I'm not fond of Bandit weapons, since even the Legendary weapons (i.e., the Gub) are virtually all shit.**

 **In the next chapter, Gaige will be losing herself a bit while Matt gets closer to saving her. Wait and see!**


	22. Mind's Eye

**I quite like this chapter. Not overly sure why, but I enjoy this more than the other ones. Maybe because it's a bit more uplifting with a wild contrast of very dark themes peppered throughout. I dunno. You be the judge. I am surprised by some of the support this story seems to be getting so far. From the current 3 reviews (which I'm grateful for, btw) seem to show that this story going well. Not to mention the follows and favourites – yes, I'm a Brit, sue me – are quite helpful in driving me to continue this.**

 **HAPPY 100K WORDS TOO!**

 **Anyways, enough of my antics, here's the twenty-second chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Two: Mind's Eye**

* * *

Matt took a deep smell of the air in Sanctuary. Even with the depressing news about the town that one of the Vault Hunters had been taken, there was a distinct aroma of positivity about the place. Everyone here knew that the remaining Vault Hunters were working hard to try and rescue her, so he supposed his friends' determination was helping to maintain morale.

So it weighed slightly on his conscience that he was still keeping from most of them how he had had a vision where they all die trying to clear the Vault. Luckily, he'd had enough pep talks from Gaige and Aurora to convince him that there was no way he was going to let anyone die in the process. For one, he knew about the artefact Caine was so adamant to find, so at the very least he and Gaige would not die.

Aurora was beside him, and they had just exited the central building of Sanctuary where the fast travel was. Once they'd made it outside, they happily dropped the fuel can so they could relax their sore limbs.

Today had been a long day. Now it was the afternoon, and the sun was shining down upon them again.

In a moment, they would call for one of their friends to get Axton or Lilith, but right now, they just wanted to relax. Even it would only be a minute or two.

'This fuel better be enough,' Aurora commented, clenching and unclenching her fists as a way to soothe the sore pain.

'Definitely,' the Anomaly concurred. 'It's too heavy not to be worth it. And I ain't carrying _another_ one of these storage cans.'

Before Aurora could reply in agreement, a large swarm of Sanctuary citizens collected around them. They seemed to be staring at the duo in complete awe, even though the Vault Hunters were just going about their business and not drawing attention to either one of them. A young teenager and an older woman who looked like his mother stepped forward from the crowd.

'You're Matt Rye, right?' He asked excitedly. Confused, the male Vault Hunter could only manage a nod. ' _Yes!_ I've always wanted to properly meet the Anomaly!'

'Sorry, my son's a massive fan of yours,' the older woman told him, evidently trying to make up for her offspring's overbearingness.

'Who wouldn't be?' One person yelled out from the crowd.

'Yeah, the guy's a legend!' Another citizen added.

'W-what about m-me?' Aurora asked quietly, so quietly that no one heard her.

'Erm…nice to meet you, kid,' Matt replied hesitantly. 'What's your name?'

'Jeffrey! And I'm gonna be a Vault Hunter like you one day!' Jeff answered, jumping up and down. He got out a digi-book.

'Mr Rye, I know might be a bit busy, but…' Jeff's mother nervously said. 'Could you sign Jeff's digi-book?'

'Why does no one want m-my autograph…?' The Revolverslinger silently wondered. No one heard her.

'Er…OK,' he agreed, still in shock. The boy handed him a digital-compatible pen, and he wrote a note:

* * *

 ** _To Jeffrey,_**

 ** _Follow your dreams and make your mom proud! But don't forget, you gotta stay alive for her!_**

 ** _––_** ** _Matt Rye, the Anomaly_**

* * *

To say that young Jeffrey was excited would be an understatement. His eyes were practically shining with monumental glee.

'Mr Rye, you are so awesome! Like when that Caine attacked and you punched him into the stratosphere! _SO COOL!'_ The boy exclaimed wildly. He was almost as hyperactive as Gaige.

'And, uh, Mr Rye –' Jeff's mother began.

'Please, call me Matt. I'm not one for formality,' the Anomaly kindly interrupted.

' _Matt_ , I'm sure you're aware of that "Gaige" girl's kidnapping?' The woman asked, to which he nodded. 'What are you doing to get her back?'

'I'm doing everything I can! In fact, the mission I just came back from was one meant to help save her!' The Anomaly pointedly yet cheerfully assured, not surprised that the citizens wanted to know about what the Vault Hunters were doing to get her back.

'Brilliant! Then I guess we have nothing to worry about!' She responded ecstatically. The entire pack of them began chanting and cheering about how Gaige was coming home and how Matt was a legend. Slowly they walked away.

'I didn't know you had fans!' The Revolverslinger emphasised in disbelief.

 _Why don't I have any…?_ She wondered in her head, although it didn't truly bother her that much.

'Yeah, I've never seen any of us be _that_ popular amigo,' a voice noted behind him. He turned around to observe Mordecai.

'Oh, uh, hey Mordecai,' Matt greeted. 'And, well, yeah, I didn't expect to be so popular. I mean, I know word about me has gotten around since the Gulag incident, but I didn't realise it was _this_ much.'

'So, you're back from getting the fuel, huh?' The marksman surmised. When they both nodded in response, he continued. 'What took you so long?'

'Some bandit stole Tina's rocket fuel so we had to steal it back,' Aurora informed him. The Hunter hummed in content.

'Could you, uh, get Axton or Lilith over here so they help carry this?' Matt diffidently requested.

'I'll send Maya to get 'em; right now, amigo, I'd like to have a word with you in private,' Mordecai told him, before going off to find the Siren to get the _other_ Siren and the Commando. He left a very confused Anomaly, standing there trying to figure what the Vault Hunter might want him for.

'What do you think he wants you for?' Aurora asked him, reading the expression on his face. He shrugged his shoulders.

'Beats me if I know,' the Vault Hunter answered casually. 'But judging by his tone, it seems fairly important.' His best friend hummed in agreement, as they stood there waiting for Maya.

A few minutes went by and the Siren eventually showed up with Axton and Lilith, who were displaying jubilant glee that their friends had finally returned with the fuel. Now that repairs were finished, it would easy for them to go after Gaige.

'What took you so long, by the way?' Axton asked, trying to seem as polite and not rude as possible. Matt went on to explain the situation with Tina's rocket fuel, which had lengthened and mission, and how heavy the rocket fuel can was.

The Commando went to pick it up to the weight, and could not go a second without immediately dropping it.

'Jesus Christ! You weren't lying when you said this had some weight to it!' He exclaimed, beckoning for Aurora and Lilith to help carry it. Matt surveyed the scene with humour for a few seconds, before going over to Maya.

'So…Mordecai wants to talk to me?' He inquired, anticipating that the Siren would know. She nodded.

'Wants to chat in HQ,' Maya told him. The Anomaly was not shocked to hear that he wanted to meet there.

'Thanks, Maya.' The Siren put her hand to his back as a form of affection to accept her 'brother's' acknowledgement. Her smiled at her, and then swiftly spun around and walked towards Crimson Raiders HQ.

Hopefully Mordecai wouldn't take too long. If the man needed him, he'd listen, but Gaige was the utmost of his priorities so he had to focus on her.

Admittedly, Matt hadn't really talked to the Hunter all that much, at least, not just the two of them. Usually, the other Vault Hunters were present, and he tended to chime in at the appropriate time. As a marksman, he was undoubtedly excellent, only matched by Zer0. The man did his job well despite how much he drank, and that was all anyone could ask for.

He hadn't really gotten to know him: what he was like, his past, his hobbies apart from hunting; none of it. Meanwhile Mordecai was certainly aware of _the Anomaly's_ past, since most of it had forced into his ears rather than it being requested. Matt never hid his past – especially with most Vault Hunters – so it was unsurprising that all of his friends were aware of what he'd been through.

However, the world certainly did not revolve around Matt. He knew that. The Vault Hunter was not the only person to have ever experienced tragedy and angst. There were probably several people out there who'd been through far worse than he had.

The only people's past that he'd properly delved into were Axton, Gaige and, obviously, Aurora. The Anomaly had learnt a little about Lilith and Maya, and he would definitely take up the offer to know more, but he didn't like to bring up other people's past. Some person called Roland seemed to be sore spot for Lilith, so it might be hard for her talk about that.

Matt himself only ever mentioned his when someone asked, and would seldom mention it offhandedly.

What was in the past was in past. Sure, one could call Matt hypocritical for saying that since he hadn't completely let go of his, although it just felt nosy to ask. Even if the Vault Hunter was fine with others asking him about his backstory.

Furthermore, he had only learnt about the Mechromancer's because she brought it up in passing remarks. Like an inside joke that compelled him to ask for her to elaborate. That's how he learnt about Marcie, and how she made DT, after all.

Axton's past wasn't secretive to _any_ of his allies, to be honest. The man openly talked about it. That was clear when the Commando punched Matt in the face when he showed up in Crimson Raider HQ for the first time, after all. Even though it was supposed to be a secret, the Vault Hunter didn't hesitate to talk. It was similar while they worked together, too. He frequently mentioned his ex-wife and his time with Dahl; most of it actually interested Matt. Hearing about his missions, though, less so about his ex-wife.

And Aurora was Aurora. They'd known each other for a long time so he knew about her time as a freelance journalist on her home planet all those years ago. He was aware that she decided to join Gemini and train under them after Hyperion tried to kill her parents on Atrios-6. She was also coerced by her parents, since they worked for them. However, they stayed loyal to their daughter and helped through her hardships just as much as Matt had.

So even now, the Revolverslinger could not believe that the Gemini Corporation were secretly in cahoots with Hyperion.

It seemed quite opportune that Mordecai wanted to talk to him, as it may allow him some insight into the man's past and how he ended up with the Raiders. Which was good to know, although not much detail was required.

A person's past affected their behaviour in the present, as many of the things experienced gave them a better perspective on their lives. That perspective shone through in the disposition of that person, their mannerisms, body language, decision making, and many other psychological aspects.

Mordecai was waiting by the scanner on the top floor; the only one who was currently present in Crimson Raider HQ. When the Hunter spotted the Anomaly, he jerked his head his way to tell him to come closer. Matt nodded, and walked up to him.

'What do you want to talk about?' the anomalous Vault Hunter questioned inquisitively.

'Your sister.'

The Anomaly immediately went silent at the mention of Amelia. Did he know about his dream about her? No. No way. Undoubtedly, Matt had only told Aurora. He sighed and finally came back with a response.

'What about her?'

'She was murdered by Hyperion, yes?' The upfront question strangled his voice box, and as such, the young man could only manage a squeak.

'Yeah.' The Hunter nodded at that simple answer.

'I've actually been meaning to talk to you about it since Caine revealed it in Overlook, amigo,' Mordecai enlightened. 'I could not help but feel a few parallels being drawn between the two of us.'

'How so? Was someone you cared about taken by them too?' The Anomaly conjectured.

'Totally, man,' the Vault Hunter replied, taking out some beer from his ECHO and guzzling it down.

Matt raised his eyebrow, with eyes that requested elaboration.

The looks he gave made Mordecai elucidate, 'I mean, it wasn't my sister, but you could say she was family.'

'You sound more cryptic than Eridians.' His amigo chuckled lightly with that remark, prompting him to continue.

'Handsome Jack murdered my bird, Bloodwing. He blew her brains out with a micro-explosive.' The Anomaly understood what he meant now. Mordecai must've been close with his bird, considering the bitterness in his voice as he told him that.

'I-I see,' Matt clarified.

'Amigo, I wanted to talk about this so you knew you weren't alone.'

'The world doesn't revolve around me, I know,' he illuminated. 'I'm not the only who's experienced tragedy at the hands of Hyperion.'

'I don't doubt that, man,' the Hunter assured him. 'It's just that, you know, if you need anyone to talk to, I'm here.' Matt nodded respectfully to that supportive statement.

'It's nice to know you you're looking out for me, Mordecai. Now, I really must catch up with Lilith, Axton and 'Ora.' The Hunter smiled at him, bidding him goodbye friendlily.

* * *

Axton struck a gleeful smile as he finished up pouring the fuel into the canister with the aid of Aurora. The brown liquid gushed out the unwelcomingly heavy can, and they were careful not to let much of it drip down the sides. The smile unnerved Aurora a bit, since she couldn't understand how he could be smiling whilst they were both struggling with the weight of the can.

Meanwhile, Lilith was still inside, checking the UI on-screen so they knew that the battery was filling up and when it was full. She could observe that the white battery outline was steadily increasing, and was about three-quarters finished. In a minute or two, it would be done. Other than the fuel, all problems had been fixed and accounted for, although fuel consumption was still a potential worry. They didn't know how much fuel the ship would actually need, but hopefully a full tank would be enough.

Jump-ships for excavation trips didn't need to go far, since it was reconnaissance, so the distance was not usually too far. Therefore, the fuel tank was naturally not too capacious.

There was also battery consumption too, which was a problematic variable for the same reason. Although, the battery that the jump-ship had was a Triple-Grade Quantum-Efficient double-cell, so it should last long – even under the rigorous Wattage-dependent effects of rocket travel.

Scooter was doing some finishing touches on the engine to go over a few of the latter problems, while also trying to be safer than sorry. He stepped back and compared it to the other jump-ship, which they'd finished work on, and sighed contentedly. They'd repaired both of them, and they seemed to be on similar levels of quality on the outside. Axton saw him, and could see that morale was high.

Maybe bringing all their Vault Hunters was a bad move. The Commando considered it. There was a possibility that Gemini had expected them to do this, and could attack Sanctuary while they were away. Perhaps that was just paranoia, since Sanctuary wasn't completely defenceless without the Vault Hunters – there were numerous security fail-safes, countless Crimson Raiders, not to mention a _very_ defensive shield.

Despite morale being high as the Vault Hunters raced to rescue Gaige, there was no helping the unnerving feeling about it all. Simply, it was uneasiness rather than lack of confidence. Having one of theirs taken did not sit right with any of them, so cautiousness was unavoidable. They had to be careful, since the road to their success was filled with stop signs.

And Gemini felt like the manufacturers of each and every one of them.

* * *

 _[Stop thinking. Stop it, now. Don't focus, don't plan, don't…anything. Don't even bother considering where he is and how he is doing. That's irrelevant. Why would you want to be conniving and calculating at a time like this? Of all the misadventures to be had!_

 _Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shutup, shutup, shutup, shutup._

 _SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTSUPSHUPSHUTUPSHUTUP! JUST SHUT UP!_

 _Shut it, there's no use anymore.]_

No one could've blamed Gaige for hardly coping anymore. Two injections down, and the Mechromancer was wondering if the pain was truly getting to her.

The voice ordering her about, to shut up and stop thinking, was not as loud as the Vault Hunter was expecting. That was a relief, although the shouting was a little disconcerting, to say the least. Being told to shut up by a voice that sounds the same as you would be.

Despite what it may have seemed to Three, Gaige wasn't going schizophrenic. Part of that was her own will ordering her to can it and pack it in. The pain was unbearable, the unimaginable temperature of the Sun burning her and scouring through her flesh.

Yet it wasn't real agony. Thankfully, her own senses could detect that the aching seemed a bit… _off._ Even if her mind itself was, to some extent, aware that it was merely the controlled effects of a stupid drug.

 _Pearl-hexa-what-now?_ That was the true her asking that quirky question, relieved that it was able to raise her spirits enough to silence the other voice.

Her eyes were still trained on Three, a burning expression of ferocity evident through them. It appeared that the third in command's summary on her emotions was left congruent. That didn't matter. Gaige _wanted_ her to know the fury she was feeling.

They dropped to her finger. It was healing; someone must've injected a hypo at some point. The swelling had died down, but there'd still be some time before it would safe to move again.

On top of that, the Mechromancer was beginning to lose the feeling of being restrained down. Her nerves virtually lost feeling in the leather buckles keeping her down like some lab rat. Now, she'd spent so long tied down that her mind had examined and inspected every detail on them.

Like, perhaps, how they were a couple metres in length, but were not tightened to their max.

Like how the restraint on her left arm was 100 micrometres longer than the right.

Or how there was a light brown shading over some of them that indicated their age.

Or how the holes in the bounds across her torso possessed slighter larger apertures, which meant the metal clasps could fit through them easier.

 _So stupid! That doesn't matter! Think! Think how you can get out of here!_

Her other voice was flaring up again.

[ _Don't think! What's the point? It's all hopeless, anyway!]_

Before the real Gaige could argue back, Three spoke.

'By the look on your face, I can see the egg is cracking,' she observed carefully.

'By the end of this, the only egg that's gonna crack is your head when I bash your brains out,' the Mechromancer bitterly responded.

'Now, now, no need for this meanness!' She exclaimed, mocking being insulted. 'Weren't you laughing at how pointless this was earlier?'

'Now, now, no need for these observations!' Gaige copied, adding a derisive, childish tone to it to prove her will had not been crushed.

'Why don't you admit the truth you're hiding from yourself as your nature as a Vault Hunter?'

The Vault Hunter didn't miss a beat when she cheekily said, 'Why don't _you_ admit that you're more of a psychiatrist than a chemist?'

'Interesting…' Three commented aloud, going back to her digi-book.

* * *

 **Gaige seems to have unfounded willpower within that allows her to maintain the façade of confidence even in the most dire of situations. While she has not gone insane from the second injection, the final injection may mean that her confidence will shatter. She is on the verge of realising who she is as a Vault Hunter.**

* * *

The Mechromancer could still feel the odd surges of pain that told her the drug was still affecting her. Her senses were not getting used to it, although that may have been a good thing as it would become a major dilemma if she became dependent on it. Fortunately, there had been no withdrawal symptoms, although her nerves were starting to anticipate the intense pain it was going to experience.

And yet, Three somehow still had some things to write about her. What even was the point? Sharp's confidant seemed to think she was getting through to Gaige, slowly making her doubt her Vault Hunter stature, yet the Mechromancer felt that she was only showing signs of hostility and resistance towards the wretched woman's woeful attempts. Honestly, that was annoying her, at least to some extent. Gaige had considered giving up sparingly whenever her fiendish doppelganger-ish voice started talking and interrupted her from a flow of normal thoughts. Three hopefully hadn't picked up on that, but what she was writing was never clear given her perfected poker face expression – although the Mechromancer never thought that the woman would be saying nice things about her.

As for now, she soldiered on. To have the wherewithal to do so might've impressed Two, if he were here, or so Three thought. Four never cared as she was just following orders, and the third in command hadn't heard from Five or Six since they went out to investigate Mr Rye's home planet, Darios.

Apparently, to the Gemini Vault Hunters, the fact that the Anomaly had grown up on such a war-torn planet was shocking. While there was no doubt that he may have picked up a few things there before joining the Tediore regimens, it was surprising considering his parents were incredibly civil. They were a higher class family, though their name carried little weight, so sustaining a family on a planet enveloped in multiple civil wars was strange to say the least.

 _Gemini Database: File #354_ was about Matt, and covered everything they knew about him. Most of his former allies had read it, finding out how he became a veteran at age 16 so he could fight in Darios's wars.

This nature of growing up on a perplexing planet and becoming efficient in battle made him an ideal candidate for Gemini employment. Once the current war on his planet was cleared up, he was recruited into the Gemini Corporation.

Gaige would've cared, but Three didn't. Know your enemy, yes, but some of it seemed unimportant. The other Vault Hunters saw it in a similar way. Violet read about him because she was intrigued by his ability to inflict pain to those he hated the most in his life. Duke made friends with him, as mentors, so he wanted to know about the guy's past, but preferred not to bring up anything that had been mentioned in the file. Dan was actually jealous of the Anomaly, although he did his best to play it off as a friendly, healthy rivalry. Arcturus never tried to compete with anyone. However, his curiosity got the better of him when it came to Matt. Caine only did research to spite the Anomaly.

Three stared at Gaige as she struggled and shook in her restraints, stretching them yet not damaging them.

 _Nothing interesting to write at the moment,_ the woman admitted.

If Three was being perfectly honest, the only thing that intrigued her about the Anomaly was his choice to keep his surname despite being disowned by his parents following the death of Amelia. Legally speaking, he should've given it up; the name Rye still pertained to him more than his own parents, it seemed. Hell, no one even _knew_ if they cared. No one had spoken to them since they'd given up the Mr Rye, but the third in command could tell they were seeking a private life, and that's what they got.

To have such a complex character as their enemy did intrigue her though. Three wanted to know what made Gaige, who'd only known the Vault Hunter for few months, fall so deeply in love with him. And what made Aurora do so too, even before he gained his Chronokinesis powers. Admittedly, Matt had been a fairly normal character before his sister was murdered – the only thing that was interesting about being his aforementioned childhood on such a conflicted home-world.

It was one of the things the woman was attempting to get out Gaige in her psychological torture session. As such, Three suspected that she was on the verge of something big. Something hidden and suppressed in the Mechromancer's mind.

Her Vault Hunter status.

There was something secretly unsure about it in the girl's personality, like a long-buried thought she'd desperately forgotten. Bit by bit, this torture was bringing it out. On that front, she supposed she was bit of a psychologist, or perhaps a psychiatrist, more than a chemist. "Chemistry Expert" was still in her job description, however.

'You're unsure about it all, aren't you?' Three asked offhandedly. Gaige looked at her with utmost confusion.

'About what?'

'Yourself. As a Vault Hunter. Why is that? What are you so unsure of?' She returned, obviously a sign that her mental digging had commenced.

'I dunno what ya talking about; I'm a Vault Hunter through and through!' The Vault Hunter declared excitedly, almost forgetting the fact that she was currently being tortured.

'Interesting. You seem to have developed some kind of mental resistance against it.'

'You see what I mean about psychiatrist?'

Three blinked.

'That would actually make me a psychologist.'

' _Whatever.'_

'I would not be so careless in a time like this, Gaige,' Three advised her callously.

'What's it to you?' The girl immediately questioned.

'You're hiding something. I can see there's something inside you that threatens your stance as Vault Hunter. A hidden emotion sprouting from an unforgettably awful memory, perhaps?'

 _Shit_ , Gaige cursed. _She's good. She can see something even I don't. Surely, it's just scare tactics, right?_ For whatever reason, the _other one_ took offense to that.

[ _Stop thinking about that and start accepting it],_ it ordered. [ _It's hopeless now, so stop wondering if he's coming or if you're getting out of this.]_

 _What would you know?_ The girl retaliated wholeheartedly, not enjoying hearing her say that so harshly.

[ _I am just a manifestation of the doubts and fears you have long since sealed away. The shackles that tied me down are slowly breaking thanks to the excessive torture. Your mind is breaking down]._

 _No way,_ the Vault Hunter adamantly refused. _If this is about Marcie, then you've got it wrong. I am not in the wrong for what happened, I know that now._

It was like two sides of her brain were at war with one another. And it was a ruthless stalemate.

[ _This is not just about Marcie. That experience merely birthed me. I grew as the self-doubt set in. You locked me away when you thought everything was OK.]_

 _If you're saying this about me being a Vault Hunter then –_

 _[It's not so much the fact that WE] –_ the voice correcting that unnerved her a little – _[are_ _a Vault Hunter the problem. It's that you're afraid of something about it.]_

 _What might that be?_

 _[You'll find out.]_

And just like that, the voice faded. The twisted side of her was not talking, but it did not really need to. What it had already said was making her think, and the ominous tone it had at the end of its conversation had already left her nonplussed.

'I'll take your silence as a yes, then,' Three commented, the manipulative tone no longer surprising her.

 _Strange. I would've expected her to be in vehement denial,_ she thought, adding to her digi-book.

* * *

 **As evidenced before, it seems that the two injections may be sending the subject of the deep end. I do not believe she has gone insane just yet, but it was entirely reasonable that she may be developing some form of schizophrenia, brought on by pas experiences.**

 **A third injection may allow her to admit the truth, meaning that the patient will be broken and – as Sharp believes – will bring back Mr Rye.**

* * *

Three could tell that the Mechromancer was thinking about Matt a lot: which was good enough to take advantage of. She already had; that's how they got into this situation.

'I'll sparingly use up this last injection, Gaige,' she told her.

'How merciful of you,' the Vault Hunter rebounded, narrowing her eyes at the Gemini employee. The Big Five member raised on of her eyebrows in response, almost looking like she was contained a laugh at the Mechromancer's stupidity.

'It's not to be merciful; it's to make the pain last longer.'

If Gaige was intimidated by that statement, she definitely didn't show it.

All she could think about was what she was supposedly afraid of.

* * *

 **Yeah, you can see the darker element in this chapter. The whole 'voices in her head' thing was rather dark, but I think it really adds to her character development. And the secret she has about her status as a Vault Hunter was purely conjured up on my part, but I really tried to delve into Gaige's psyche. I figured that the guilt over Marcie's death is still there – albeit lessened – and this she is prevents from thinking herself as a true Vault Hunter when she killed an innocent person and especially given that she is the youngest Vault Hunter too.** ** _And_** **the fact that she's the least experienced and only delved into Vault Hunting because she thought it might've been cool, whereas the others had a genuine reason.**

 **Also, I felt like the whole Mordecai thing was overdue (by seven chapters) but it makes sense that the Hunter would compare his experiences with Bloodwing to Matt's with his sister. It may seem unoriginal to have him form some kind of moral support, but it honestly just makes sense to me that that is what he would do.**

 **Don't know why it took me so long to talk about Matt's childhood and past pre-Gemini. But there it is. If you happen to be wondering why they sound similar, Atrios-6 and Darios(-1) are in the same solar system.**

 **Bet you wouldn't have guessed Aurora used to be a freelance journalist!**

 **[Insert part here where the author begs for reviews]**

 **Was that too subtle? But seriously, please review, as that'd be nice. I don't want to screw this up, you know?**

 **And I'll see you silent observers in the next chapter!**


	23. Discord

**It's been a fair while since the last chapter, I have to say. That's mainly because I had to fix a few problems with my computer and got a better CPU. It was a long process, so I did not have much time to write, but I did eventually succeed in getting this one done. Sadly, that also meant my plan for this had also been delayed a bit too. A thought of a sequel has crossed my mind since I know how I want to end this now - and the circumstances could lead to a sequel quite easily. I don't wanna spoil it; you'll see.**

 **Hint: there's also a MASSIVE reveal in this chapter over something that I have been sitting on for literal** ** _months_** **. It's right at the end, so enjoy that! (It's a bit short though.)**

 **I also got another review the other day, which is awesome. To CrazyRecluse862: it's nice to know that people have noticed the minor details I put in hinting towards BL2 and the overall universe. Also, it's nice that the new powers that the characters had you think would be fun to have in-game, since that was the initial purpose. I literally brainstormed ideas for Action Skill abilities that would be cool to use in-game. That's where the whole "slowing time" thing came from.**

 **Anyways, I've rambled enough…**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Three: Discord**

* * *

Matt looked on proudly at the two repaired and refuelled Dahl Mining Subsidiary jump-ships, liking the current harmony he was feeling. When he arrived in the hangar/cargo bay with Aurora, he instantly noticed the touched-up look on both of them. The second thing he noticed was how weightless the discarded rocket fuel can was beside the second jump-ship.

Lilith, Axton and Scooter stood proudly in front of them, as if presenting it to them as a present of some sorts. Scooter and Axton looked tired, with sweat glistening in the artificial lights, while Lilith was not. She must've been helping by keeping them up to date on the system HUD, the Vault Hunter surmised.

They weren't alone either. All the other Vault Hunters were present: Mordecai, Brick, Maya, Zer0 and Salvador. Everyone was aware that the time had swiftly arrived for them to go after Gaige. Certainly, Matt was content to let Gaige go through any more pain and suffering than he had been forced to allow up until this point. The Anomaly hated (at least, in a minor fashion) every single happy moment he had experienced while Gaige was kidnapped, because he knew that for all the bliss he felt, the young Mechromancer was enduring doubly more torture.

Yet, there was…calm. A peace blanketed him, enveloping in inviting concord that told him to relax, because it was all going to be OK.

 _All's well that ends well._ He thought pleasantly enough. Though, Gaige's torture kept him from becoming too happy about it. Now more than ever, the Vault Hunter could not get distracted. He was on the verge of getting his girlfriend back, so there was no way he could slow down his progress now.

Once the Mechromancer was back, they would go on their mission to take down the Vault. No doubt, Lima Base One had assets that would allow him to track it. (Plus his Vault Instincts.) With the fact that it keeps cycling through two dimensions, it would be hard for anyone to find, seen as though no one would be aware when it was present and when not. Even so, if they _did_ find it, Matt was almost certain that only he could open it. After all, Caine had said that in his vision. An input of Siren power that only the Anomaly could provide was the only way.

Matt Rye was a living Vault Key.

Still now, his actual importance really surprised him. Not too long ago, Matt was just a normal, not too powerful Vault Hunter who had a tragic, encumbering backstory. Later on, he was just a Vault Hunter with an interesting power and tragic backstory. Now, he was a powerful Vault Hunter who embodied the abnormal and anomalous; could hold off against multiple other Vault Hunters; slow down time to increments hardly perceptible to living beings; and someone who had a tragic backstory that he was slowly, but surely, accepting. No, he wasn't near apotheosis or anything, but quite simply, the growth he'd made over the past few months was exponential.

 _Times: they are a-changing._

'You ready, Matty?' Aurora cautiously enquired to him. He looked at her warmly.

'Yes, I am,' the Anomaly informed her. 'I'm not content to let Gaige suffer any longer. I can't stand it.'

'You're not the only one, killer,' Lilith added.

'Slab, what we do now is gonna piss off a whole lotta people,' Brick advised him. 'Are you ready for this?'

'There's no questioning in it; we're going after Gaige, and that's final.'

'Gaige is one of us / They'll see what happens when they / Take one of our own,' Zer0 concurred, displaying a devious emoticon on his visor.

'Good,' Matt responded, turning to Aurora. 'Do you have your C-Digistructor?'

The Revolverslinger blinked. It'd been a while since they'd used that particular piece of technology. A mini-New-U device such as that was invaluable; however, both of them were hard-pressed to be in situations where they'd need it. Sure, they could've used it to get the rocket fuel non-lethally, but they'd left them in the ship for use later. It seemed Matt just wanted to know if she'd picked it up back up again.

'Yeah, took mine out of one of the jump-ships. You?'

'Picked up my two as well.'

'I never asked, but, why do you have two C-Digistructors?' The female Vault Hunter wondered inquisitively.

'I've had some scrapes, so I've had to repair my C-Digistructor a lot when we got back from Gemini missions,' the Anomaly enlightened. 'So I thought I'd bring a spare just in case. Good thing I did. Gaige wouldn't have been able to infiltrate the Gulag without it.'

'True, but you aren't the wisest.' Matt scoffed, and Aurora realised that she'd just said that the person who was now universally known for being wise was not really that wise.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

'You forgot to charge it, remember?' She teased.

'Well, I didn't this time.'

'I should think so! I'm not your wife, I am not gonna do it for you.'

'Guys…?' Maya interrupted. 'I don't think Gaige would like it if she knew you were flirting.'

'It's just repartee between _friends_ , Maya,' the Revolverslinger assured her.

'It _better_ be,' the Siren warned, showing aggressiveness almost similar to that of Lilith. It disconcerted him a little, luckily though, the Anomaly was able to remain composed enough to reply.

'I wouldn't dream of flirting with other girls, _especially_ when my girlfriend's been kidnapped.'

'Mm,' she agreed, still slightly suspicious. It didn't matter. Gaige was infinitely more important at the moment. All of them were aware of this.

'We can't get distracted,' Axton directed, not wanting to irresponsibly waste any more time. Certainly, it was feckless to do so.

'Then let's waste no more time, mi familia!' Salvador exclaimed.

Matt nodded, and walked past Mordecai and Lilith to open one of the Dahl jump-ships' doors. He flicked on the "ON" switch, and the ship whirred to life; the lights turned on to a warm orange; the system UI HUD displayed a loading symbol on the glass; the monitor panel in the centre of the control panel glowed blue before stating the ship was in pre-take-off mode; switches and buttons glowed colours; and the accelerate/decelerate switch's light terminal blinked green to indicate it was ready. The ship was ready.

The Anomaly took out one of his C-Digistructors, and placed them in a storage draw below the main console. As he did this, Maya, Lilith and Axton entered the ship with him. He could see the Aurora, Brick, Zer0 and Mordecai entering the other one.

'I got this, Matt,' the Commando told him, taking a seat nearest to the main controls. 'I know how to fly these things.'

'What about the others?' Matt asked worriedly.

'Zer0's got it on that front, killer,' Lilith ensured him, sitting down on the seat lazily. The anomalous Vault Hunter considered questioning that, nevertheless, Zer0's past was almost entirely unknown – so him being able to fly a ship wasn't something you could really be surprised by. The Assassin was experienced, so, it wasn't all too shocking. More or less, it was just useful.

'Let's get going, then,' he persisted, strapping the X-design seatbelt on his seat along with the other three. It made a satisfying clicking sound as he pressed the latch into the catching piece. It locked, and they were set.

'We're all ready when you are, amigos,' Mordecai told them over the ECHO. Axton nodded to that, while Maya came back with an Axton-sounding "Roger that" which made the Hunter chuckle a little.

Meanwhile, The Commando moved his seat forward on the metal tracks, and interacted with the system UI, connecting to the wireless network that controlled the hangar shutter. After a few gestures, namely, swipes, the shutter opened up and revealed the cloudy atmosphere in which Sanctuary laid peacefully in.

'JUMP-SHIP POWERING UP,' claimed an AI voice. 'PLEASE FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS, AND PREPARE FOR DEPARTURE.'

Axton waited for the jump-ship ahead of them to build up speed and reach escape velocity, before carefully pushing forward the Acc/Dec lever towards "ACCELERATION" and thus revved up the engines.

Within moments, the two ships flew out hangar, starting off slow but picking up speed. There was cheering to be heard, which made the Anomaly look out the back window to see the civilians of Sanctuary jumping and down. Namely, he could see Jeffrey and his mother yelling excitedly about it, with Jeff himself holding his digi-book with possessed Matt Rye's signature.

'POWER SOURCE STABILISED.'

That was the anomalous Vault Hunter's clue. He leaned forward to take out the C-Digistructor, before tapping his ECHOear.

'Aurora? Get out your C-Digistructor. Integrate it into the software.'

'You got it.'

Matt attached a few cables from the control panel's additive connector, syncing up his device with the ship. The main screen on the panel, which showed the immediate surroundings of the ship digitally, flashed a symbol of two wires to inform that the device had been successfully connected.

'What's your plan, Anomaly?' Maya asked, grateful that the ship had sound-proofing, or she'd have to shout.

'I figured Helios and Lima Base One would find it quite suspicious that two Dahl jump-ships would be entering their airspace,' he explained. 'So we're gonna use my C-Digistructor to disguise as a Gemini ship!'

'You don't have it downloaded into your device's memory banks!' Lilith reminded him worriedly. The Anomaly only smiled.

'I don't, but _she_ does.' Matt used the device to wirelessly sync up with Aurora's C-Digistructor, and downloaded the design of a Gemini jump-ship.

'When the hell did Aurora get the design of a Gemini ship?!' Axton probed exclamatorily.

Aurora laughed heartily over the ECHO, fully aware that she was now going to have to explain something that she did in the heat of moment and by pure luck.

* * *

 _Two days ago_

* * *

The Revolverslinger was fast. No doubt about it. Not a track team runner, but maybe the young woman could've been. Her brain reacted quickly, and took action almost immediately. So when she heard from Matt that Gaige was in trouble, the Vault Hunter immediately ran to help her. She ignored the invasive questions from her parents on the matter, since Mr and Mrs Lux barely knew Gaige and were really only aware that she was an ally and an acquaintance at best.

Aurora called everyone over the ECHO that the Mechromancer was in danger, and that they should go to Overlook right away. They had to be fast.

But Matt was faster. His Chronokinesis undoubtedly aided in that. So she hoped that his pure speed and fighting experience would be enough to get the young girl out of whatever pinch she was in. However, it was obvious that the problem Gaige found herself in was incredibly serious and difficult to get out of. Going by the Anomaly's grave disposition when he warned Aurora about it, that is.

All of the Vault Hunters were making their way to Overlook. They were fast too. Were they fast enough, though? It seemed they were about to find out.

They materialised in Overlook to be greeted with the one of the most unpleasant sights possible for them at the moment: there was a ship flying away, fast, and Matt was screaming in anguish whilst being enveloped in an energy aura.

The Vault Hunters could not have been more shocked, however, Aurora was thinking fast.

Most of her mind was making large assumptions that would lead actions that would only be worthwhile by pure luck. However, she had to try with what she had anyway.

She took out her C-Digistructor, turned it to scan mode, and pointed it out to the Gemini ship flying so fast away. It had not faded out of visibility yet, and the Lima Base One satellite would have been able to pick it up. It did, and it scanned the ship to add to the device's memory banks.

 _35% complete…45%…55%…60%…_

Aurora was getting there at least, so that was a plus. It was hard not to get distracted by the ball of energy that was emanating from Matt. The sheer power and force that was Matt. Her friends had been mesmerised by it, so much so that they did not notice what she was doing.

 _Come on…Hurry up…!_ The Vault Hunter pleaded in her head desperately. In a few minutes, the ship she was scanning would be docking at Lima Base One, and thus the satellite her device was hijacking would cease scanning – as the operators had already determined what it was.

 _75%, 86%_ …82%… _no! It went back! Come on already!_

30 seconds. 30 seconds and Base One's satellite would stop scanning the incoming object. 25 seconds. 22 seconds. Aurora was running out of time. If the young woman failed now, then she'd hate herself for it later. 18 seconds. Since when did her C-Digistructor take so long to scan? 15 seconds. Was it because it was a large object, so there were a lot of details to probe? 13 seconds. She hadn't really thought about it. 11 seconds. 10 seconds. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5…

 _99 percent…_

4\. 3. 2…

1.

 _100% COMPLETE! YES! JUST IN TIME TOO! That was really tense, so –_

Her thought track was interrupted when the ground rumbled slightly, and Matt had made it clear he had detected their presence. Initially, everyone was frozen, not sure what to do. Aurora had to do something, though.

She reached out the Anomaly and called his name.

* * *

As the Revolverslinger told this story over the ECHO, all of them were very impressed by the woman's quick thinking. Axton would've scratched his chin, if he weren't so focussed on driving the ship.

'So now, we can' – Matt pressed a few buttons, and the exterior ship was enveloped in digital light, as was the one in front – 'disguise ourselves, so we won't get caught yet!'

With a scan on the exterior hull, the Commando observed that it was intact. The system UI which he was staring at detected no problems whatsoever. It only said that the exterior "cloak" had changed to that of a Gemini jump-ship. So that it would not be suspicious, Matt changed the look to be slightly different to Two and Four's; it now indicated that it was a recon sent out by some alternate directory of Gemini. That meant Sharp would not suspect it, since the employees scanning it would see no need to inform him of it.

'That was genius, Aurora,' Axton complimented her, surprising the rest of the Vault Hunters that he would non-arrogantly give accolades to someone. Usually, the Commando preferred to view himself as superior to pretty much anyone he was older than, or had more experience in certain fields than. Now, it seemed as if the ex-Dahl Vault Hunter was more carefree about it.

 _I wonder if that was Matt's doing?_ Maya conjectured, hoping that some of her other friends were pondering this too.

 _I guess Matt just has that effect on people,_ Lilith supposed.

'So when do we get to kill some hombres, eh?' Salvador impatiently deliberated over the ECHO. It seemed he wasn't the only one.

'Yeah!' Brick approved also. 'I wanna take down the dudes who thought they could take one of ours and get away with it!' Zer0 made a loud, over-exaggerated sigh.

'That time will come soon / Patience is a virtue, so / Eyes on the prize, yes?'

Everyone murmured their agreements on that, all thirsty for blood apart from the Assassin, Zer0. Weird.

For once, that made Matt doubt what he was even going to do with Commander Sharp. He was so focussed on rescuing Gaige that had not spared a thought to the penance James Sharp would likely receive from him by trying to get to him through people he loved. The Anomaly was supposed to be merciful, forbearing till the end. What hypocrite would that make him if he was not merciful to his girlfriend's kidnapper?

It was not that simple. Matt had worked hard not to be blinded by rage whenever Sharp crossed his mind. But he _was_ pissed. Pissed that the commander would even _attempt_ something like that. So easy it was just to kill him.

But Matt didn't kill the unworthy.

Question was: what defined the unworthy? Where was the line that split innocents from the unforgiven? Who had crossed it? A useless thought, actually. Whoever might be on those sides was purely a subjective thought. Someone Matt viewed as innocent might be seen as evil to someone else. Sharp was an enemy to the Anomaly, for example, but an ally to Gemini.

This was a debate he would have to postpone until he came face-to-face with Commander Sharp. Gaige was more important, and she deserved to be focussed on more so than anyone else at the moment. Hopefully, she was doing OK.

* * *

Three was being slow. She was being slow with the perhexiline. Was that merciful? Not really. It dragged out the effects of the drug itself while not increasing the pain; it meant that the subject felt like it lasted longer.

Admittedly, Three was doing it because she could see that the Mechromancer was breaking down. Perhaps not insane, but the Vault Hunter was evidently close to just giving up right then and there. Which was a golden opportunity for Sharp's third in command. This girl would finally accept something about herself rooted so deep in her subconscious.

Gaige had stopped convulsing on the operating table, but her muscles were visibly tensed. She was silent, yet it was evident that she was thinking hard.

The Mechromancer could not last much more of this. The pain was so intense she could barely think, but she was trying as much as she could. Her will was wearing thin, the Vault Hunter was aware of that. And the Mechromancer hated it. The girl was determined to get through this, so the fact that that perseverance was fleeting was disheartening, to say the least.

There was only half of the third injection left of the damned drug, although it was slowly whittling down since Three was going to continue use it up and stretch out the use of it so that Gaige would feel it more.

'You starting to understand it now, aren't you?' Three observed. The Mechromancer only slightly moved her head to acknowledge that she heard her.

'Shut up, _noob,_ ' the Vault Hunter sputtered out.

'It's all coming back, isn't it?' Sharp's confidant noticed. 'I understand it now. You don't view yourself as a _real_ Vault Hunter, do you?'

'N-no…I-I…' she stuttered.

'What happened to you that led you to doubt yourself?' Three probed, knowing that she'd finally gotten through to Gaige. Or so she thought. The Mechromancer took a few deep breaths.

'I _told_ you I wasn't gonna say shit,' she reminded her. Three's eyes widened and she went to her digi-book to record her shocking findings. Certainly, Sharp was going to be interested by her findings.

* * *

 **Incredible…! Despite going through (almost) three injections, Gaige "the Mechromancer" shows little signs of wavering, even when it is evident that it is starting to affect her cognitive thinking. I have never seen such unbreakable willpower, which may mean that that the aim to get Gaige to admit she is not a true Vault Hunter is slowly failing.**

* * *

Realising she had all she needed for the moment, Three got up and stepped out of the room. The door closing averted Gaige's attention, and she realised that she was alone.

 _[You're close to your acceptance. Good.]_ The other voice declared maniacally.

 _The only thing I'm accepting is that I WILL get out of here._ The Mechromancer argued unrelentingly.

 _[Your faith is pathetic. I am here to rid you of your falseness. I will not tolerate these admonishments.]_

 _Yeah right! As if! You can't tell me what to do! You're not even real!_

 _[Nothing is truly real until you believe in it.]_

 _I'm not giving up!_

 _[Liar. You already HAVE given up.]_

 _I'm a Vault Hunter. We DON'T give up!_

 _[You're not a real Vault Hunter.]_

 _What? Y-yes I am!_

 _[I am here to cleanse you of this false pretence. Heed my advice, weakling.]_

 _Once Matt gets here, he'll show you what I mean!_

 _[Cease this pathetic squabbling.]_

 _Why? You're just a voice in my head!_

 _[Yes; I can be quite loud.]_

Gaige's instant reflex was to try to cover her ears, but the leather shackles prevented her from doing so.

 _[SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP…]_

* * *

Three walked into Commander Sharp's office, greeted by the military veteran as he was looking on at the CCTV of Gaige in her restraints. Violet was standing by the chair, having thoroughly enjoyed watching the young Vault Hunter writhe in agony.

He looked up to see her, and took on a look of anger and disappointment. Three was a little confused at first, until she started talking.

'Why did you leave? I was sure you were getting through to her!'

'Sir, that girl has an unsurmountable will,' Three explained. 'Most of my subjects were pleading for death come the beginnings of the third injection. She isn't even showing an ounce of compliance.'

'So you're giving up?'

'No. I came to inform you of what I have observed so far.' Sharp nodded for her to continue, and Violet clapped her hands together excitedly. Three presented her total findings to him, with a few of her extra notes:

* * *

 **Subject known as "Gaige" shows lack of control over her emotions. Freely expresses them aptly just using her eyes. She has not spoken yet, must see if emotions properly translate to voice. Expected to follow through.**

 **Addendum: Correct.**

 **Additionally, Gaige shows blatant disrespect for her superiors and does not seem to understand the gravity of the situation she is in. She appears to have a crudely constructed pedestal which she places herself on, that which allows her to ask questions as though she possesses authority, but lacks even a quark of it. It is yet to see if this bravado is all there is, or if she may have ulterior talents.**

 **Shows minor intelligence that is hidden by impertinence. Lacks basic etiquette.**

 **Addendum: Incredibly uncouth and crass behaviour.**

 **Unsurprisingly, Gaige is uncooperative about her backstory. Perhaps there is something in her past she regrets and has regretted which has likely shaped her way of thinking.**

 **Displays signs of potential cajolement and may be coaxed into some minimally consequential actions.**

 **Patient seems quite close to the Anomaly known as Matt Rye. She thinks incredibly highly of him, and is not afraid to express her romantic feelings towards him. The fact that she is may also mean she is prepared for people to take advantage of that.**

 **Addendum: This method has so far been unsuccessful.**

 **Patient appears to have an essence of willpower, given that half of the perhexiline is not enough to break her. She appears to have had a much more intense reaction to the drug however.**

 **NOTE: Most subjected to the drug do not survive past three injections. A select few have, but a lot begin to go insane after second dosage of the more potent version.**

 **Unbelievably, Gaige "the Mechromancer" shows uncommon mental strength against the pain of the enhanced perhexiline. She is firmly hinged despite being in complete agony, and only a select few have exhibited such willpower. Although, it is unclear where this willpower comes from and it only serves to put a dent in Commander Sharp's plan. May have to resort to third dosage.**

 **NOTE: Resorting to third dosage. Effects on Gaige TBD.**

 **Gaige seems to have unfounded willpower within that allows her to maintain the façade of confidence even in the most dire of situations. While she has not gone insane from the second injection, the final injection may mean that her confidence will shatter. She is on the verge of realising who she is as a Vault Hunter.**

 **Incredible…! Despite going through (almost) three injections, Gaige "the Mechromancer" shows little signs of wavering, even when it is evident that it is starting to affect her cognitive thinking. I have never seen such unbreakable willpower, which may mean that that the aim to get Gaige to admit she is not a true Vault Hunter is slowly failing.**

* * *

 **(A/N: Yeah, I guess you don't have to read much of this since the only new things you didn't see earlier were a few notes and addendums Three added.** **)**

* * *

And finally, she showed him her fully written conclusion on the girl known as Gaige the Mechromancer on her ECHO recorder –

 _"_ _Gaige is a rude, argumentative and discordant person who does not follow any stance of order while simultaneously showing no respect for her superiors. In any situation, she believes herself to be above all else, and can freely speak as she so desires._

 _Although the latter is true, the Mechromancer depicts indomitable mental strength and has so far been able to withstand three injections of medium-dosage max potency perhexiline, despite the intense pain it causes her and the excessive hypos needed to bring her back from the effects of the drug._

 _Despite her hateable nature, Gaige is a force to be reckoned with, and not just because she is a Vault Hunter. She is hiding something about her title as a Vault Hunter, preventing her from accepting herself as a true one, however, there is no doubt that the girl's word is her bond."_

* * *

Commander James Sharp scratched his chin at that summary. Whatever conversations Three had had with the Mechromancer, they certainly must've impressed her for her to speak of _any_ compliments of one of their enemies. Just _who_ was this Gaige girl? And what was he thinking when he had Two and Four kidnap her?

'You sure put her through a lot of pain to get to that conclusion!' Violet exclaimed wildly, jumping up and down on the prospect that one of their enemies had experienced unbearable pain.

'Why are you so obsessed with pain anyway?' Three demanded harshly, getting tired of this girl's sadistically playful attitude. 'To me, it's only necessary.' Violet gave a crooked smile to that, knowing her response to the fair question almost immediately.

It actually scared Three slightly with how emphatic the Light Bender was about inflicting serious pain upon someone.

Violet Parker the Light Bender laughed psychotically, a vein in her lilac-purple skin convulsing.

'It's easy,' the insane Vault Hunter claimed. 'Pain is the sweet sensation you get when your body thinks you want no more. But you never stop accepting more.'

'And that's _interesting_ to you?' Sharp enquired carefully, hoping that Parker would not get up in his face. She turned and nodded.

'I always thought that the feeling of pain in beings was interesting. The funny thing is, people don't seem to like it, yet they'll happily accept pity from it.'

'That would sound kinda smart if you weren't so insane, Ms Parker,' Three noted, putting her "psychological" skills to work on her easily.

'Agreed,' Commander Sharp added. Violet pouted, and put her arms around Sharp.

'Aww, but you keep me here anyway!' She announced victoriously. Three rolled her eyes.

'Try and be a bit more professional, Ms Parker,' Sharp warned her, shuffling in his seat.

'Mm,' Three mumbled in agreement.

'Anyway, is that all you have to inform me of, Three?' The commander asked her, concerned that something may have gone wrong. Three looked slightly worried for a moment, but hid it with their unsurpassably excellent poker face.

'Four wanted me to tell you that Test Subject #239 is showing… _complications_ with his imprisonment.'

'Why?' Sharp leaned forward. 'We've had him for _months_ now, and he has shown less and less signs of resistance.'

'The man is six foot and a completely bonkers schizophrenic,' Violet commented, but James shot a look at her to tell her shut her mouth or face the consequences of insubordination.

'I am not certain myself, to be honest,' Three admitted wholeheartedly. 'The guy's impossible to get through since he has two voices in his head. The only thing that matches up with the time of his newfound impediments he's been giving would be –'

'Gaige being brought in,' the military leader suddenly recognised, interrupting Three without a care for her reaction about it. This was more important. Definitely.

' _Interesting,'_ Violet mused.

'You think the two may know each other?' His third in command suggested. Commander Sharp nodded.

'Quite possibly. Word of a new prisoner being brought in gets around fast, _especially_ considering how much torture said prisoner is being put through. So if this psycho man personally knows Gaige, then I suppose his anger would not be unpermitted. Gaige is an easy person to pity when being tortured since she doesn't look like the most strongly-willed person in the room.'

He was right there. Two and Four claimed they believed the Mechromancer would be an easy nut to crack. Therefore, it made sense why someone who knew her well would not stand for her getting tortured so brutally. Sentimentality did things like that to you. Blinded you. Made you soft. Made you forget what must be done.

Both Two and Four were almost certain the Vault Hunter would go down once she was subjected to a bit of Dan's mentally-based holographic torture. It was almost laughable how wrong they truly were about that, though luckily Sharp had not reprimanded them for their stupidity. Perhaps it just didn't matter anymore.

'So what do we do with him?' Three inquired.

'Put him under a sedative if he gets too intense,' the commander ordered. 'Either way, Test Subject #239 isn't going to be a major problem.'

Three nodded, and walked back out the room. She was considering going right back to Gaige to continue the session sans her digi-book, but got another idea.

 _#239 will likely need to be checked on. I might be able to get an idea of his psyche as of late, or what's left of it. Although, no need for a full psychoanalysis._ She thought intelligently, proud of herself for her smart thinking.

With one word of where she was going and why to Commander Sharp, she spun around and walked down the halls, passing the chambers to Test Subject 1 – 150 in a span of a few minutes. There were multiple soldiers going about their business with the subjects, giving them their trays of food, punishing them, transporting them, and predominantly checking over them.

Eventually she made it to the door of #239. Three batted an uninterested eye towards #240; " _Gaige"_ was written on the door. It wasn't currently in use. The Mechromancer had initially been tortured in there by Dan and Violet, her screams almost shaking the very foundations of Lima Base One, before she was transported to Three so she could do her work.

Three slid open the panel on the door and looked upon on the muscular man on the chair, who had a respiratory mask seemingly bolted to his face. He was calm at the moment, but she informed the soldiers that they may need a sedative to _keep_ him calm, in case he has another fit of anger.

She could hear a few mutters from the man.

 _'_ _Strip the flesh…salt the wounds…'_

Yeah, the man was bat-shit crazy. He was the kind of man who would start a war without really knowing who the enemy was.

For now, Sharp's third in command needn't care about the insane subject. Gaige was so close to cracking; she had to focus on the Mechromancer.

She slid the panel back over and walked away from the door that had the name _"Krieg"_ emblazoned on it in dreary gold.

* * *

 **There you have it! The "big" reveal! Krieg had been captured by Gemini and held on Lima Base One the whole time! It feels like a weight off my chest finally to enlighten you, the reader, on that one since I said** ** _ages ago_** **that I was going to talk about where he is and that his leave of absence isn't normal – I finally delivered on that promise.**

 **Also, I know it may seem a bit…** ** _convenient_** **that Aurora was able to scan the Gemini jump-ship in the nick of time as it flew away from Pandora –** ** _and_** **that she didn't mention it – but I needed some way to explain how Matt and crew were going to be able to pass Helios, a giant fucking** ** _space station,_** **without being shot down.**

 **I also wanted to make light of the awful occurrence of Gaige being kidnapped by later divulging that something more hopeful happened at the same time.**

 **Aforementioned, the summary of Three's work may have seemed pointless, but I didn't want you to have to go back and read all of it, so honestly, it was easier just to disclose all of it right there. Not to mention there were a few addendums that you didn't see (because there was no point mentioning** ** _all_** **of them in the middle of all the Three-Gaige moments).**

 **Above all else, I hope this chapter was intriguing, compelling and not boring. It's nice to know that those reading this actually like it, since I certainly want to keep this story "awesome" and stuff like that.**

 **Hint: there's something not quite right about Gaige's 'other' voice.**

 **[This chapter is exactly 6 thousand words, including this statement. How awesome is that?]**


	24. Incite

**I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but I went on holiday for a few days so I couldn't continue writing this…but I certainly haven't given up on it. Not while I'm** ** _this_** **far into it, with another ten-ish chapters left. We're getting closer to the actual Vault, too, where the ultimate mystery of who/what the Vault Monster is will be revealed.**

 **There is also a minor glimpse into Matt and Aurora's missions with Gemini at the start, too.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Four: Incite**

* * *

Matt, Lilith, Axton and Maya were running into no problems while they were on "Operation: Get Gaige Back from those Gemini Dicks" was underway.

They were approaching Elpis, with its 'beauty' breath-taking: the vast crevices of glowing, mesmerising lava; the adorning settlements that showed the desperate colonial nature of the human race; the numerous cracks in across the surface that made it appear as though it had been hit with an asteroid; and of course, the intrusive, observant eye that was Helios, intimidatingly and imposingly orbiting the planet.

Maybe it really was beauty; maybe it was not.

The Anomaly could easily spot Lima Base One not too far from the overbearing shadow Helios cast over the planet, as well as Lima Base Two and Three on other sides of the planet. They weren't going there. Gaige wasn't there, after all.

No doubt, the disguises they had had meant that Helios wasn't shooting them down and Lima Base One wasn't concerned about their impending arrival. That was a relief. The jump-ship Zer0 was piloting was a good distance in front of them, and as such, they were having casual conversations over the ECHO about things.

'Would you ever have thought we'd get to be the pilots in fancy jump-ships like these?' Maya revelled to everyone.

'It's an experience like no other, amiga,' Mordecai agreed, sitting back on his lazily on his seat.

'I've always been the passenger,' Aurora said, reminiscing on her times at Gemini. 'Hey, Matt? D'ya remember? with Doctor Ted…?'

'Oh yeah,' Matt recalled, much to the confusion of his Vault Hunter friends. 'We had Vaus – our team pilot – fly our ship straight into him when he tried to blow up half of Promethea.'

'"Doctor Ted"?' Lilith wondered, remembering only when the Anomaly had briefly muttered something about him while they were going to take down the Gemini Armoury, an event that felt like a century ago.

'Crazy brother of Doctor Zed,' the Revolverslinger filled them in.

'Crazier than Doctor _Ned?'_ Brick remarked, not quite sure, at all really, how anyone could be more bonkers than a guy who genetically engineered zombies.

'Well, he tried to blow up Promethea to, and I quote, "rid the rest of galaxy of their disease,"' Matt told them, much to their shock.

'What disease might that have been?' Axton queried, careful not to lose his focus of their trajectory.

''Poverty,'' Matt and Aurora said in unison on the ECHO, surprising them even further.

'Poverty's not a disease!' Maya stated. 'And even if it was, it's not like Promethea's the only planet that suffers from it!'

'According to Doctor Ted, the "paucity on Promethea is unique to others in the galaxy. This breed is much more deadly so thus must be exterminated."' Aurora notified them.

'A unique thesis / But it is wrapped in a cloak / Of insanity,' Zer0 noted figuratively, returning to twirling his blue and black sword with his right hand to relieve boredom. His words intrigued the rest of them.

'I suppose the best way you can put it is unique,' Lilith settled, feeling as though if she had not implied the end of the conversation, then Aurora and Matt were going to take a long an boring trip down memory lane.

All was calm. The ship hummed in concordance, its roaring engines reduced to the sound of muffled billowing. There next to none of uncomfortable bumping or build-ups of air resistance, the streamlined nature of the ship prepared for that. It smoothly, elegantly flew through the air, escaping the atmosphere and entering ever further into the black canvas known as space.

They say that, in space, no one can hear you scream. But also in space, no one can hear discordance or commotion, no anguish or confliction, there is only serenity. A true peace; a balance. Pandora was a place of anarchy and unruliness, a world devoid of order (much to Handsome Jack's chagrin), so how could it rest in a void of easiness and calm? The calm, that's what Matt would call it.

However, as per usual, the calm _always_ occurred before the storm.

' _Alert: Gemini jump-ships. Lima Base One detects your presence. State your intent. State the security code_ ,' commanded an AI voice over the comms sardonically. It was the same male voice as the one used for the fast travel machine in the T-Bone Junction.

'Crap…!' Axton moaned over the comms.

'They're gonna catch us out…!' Maya fretted.

'Relax, guys, Aurora and I know the code,' the Anomaly assured them.

'Aren't they gonna recognise your voice, cúmbila?' Salvador pointed out, surprising them with their intelligence.

'This is why I'm glad I have two C-Digistructors,' Matt remarked, taking out his second device and assuming the form of a Gemini Deceptor.

 _'_ _Alert. If you do not reply, we will be forced to take offensive action.'_ Matt gritted his teeth, or would have if it was visible to see his face under his visor.

'Deceptor Bravo to Lima Base One. Repeat, Deceptor Bravo to Lima Base One.'

 _'_ _Voice recognition accepted. State your intent.'_

'To dock. We have returned from a mission.'

 _'_ _Open-ended mission on Pandora detected. Intention acknowledged.'_ Matt had to force himself to breathe a sigh of relief that they had accepted his deception, and that the mission to protect the Gemini Armoury was still an open-ended mission that had not been cleared up.

'Requesting permission to dock,' he entreated _._

 _'_ _State security code.'_

'Security Code Designation: 4856apple7y934kaster6. Override security parameters.'

 _Isn't that Gaige's security shutdown code…?_ Maya wondered, knowing that this moment would have been one of the worst to bring it up.

There was a long pause from the AI, which made them all worry that the Anomaly had gotten it wrong. If Matt had messed up, then they'd be shot down. They may die, but, at the very least, they would have failed to save Gaige from her undeserved torture. And no one would be more devastated about that than Matt Rye.

 _'_ _Security Override Code accepted. Granting permission to dock.'_

'Unimportance Override Code: 4589com96sharp234yd,' the Anomaly added.

 _'_ _Unimportance Code accepted. Commander James Sharp will not be notified of your arrival.'_ Finally, the voice cut out, and silence greeted them once again.

 _Well, that was smart,_ Aurora thought proudly of her best friend.

Everyone breathed a loud sigh of relief that the Anomaly had succeeded.

'That'll make it easier to take Lima Base One down since Sharp wouldn't even have realised when we got there,' Matt announced triumphantly.

'Excellent work, killer!' Lilith praised, happy that they were one stop ever nearer to saving Gaige.

'Real coincidence that that first security is the same as Gaige's,' Maya added, interested yet slightly bugged by the coincidence.

'"4856apple7y934kaster6" is a common security failsafe code, actually,' Aurora told her, easing up her vexation about it since it wasn't a really nice coincidence.

The Siren's experiences as a Vault Hunter had taught her one thing: "nice coincidences" didn't exist. The universe wasn't kind to you like that. It loved to throw anguish and trauma your way, and it had been to her – _and_ Matt – for long while. As such, she hated it when it seemed like it was doing you a good service – as the world, plainly, did not work that way. That was something the monks could not teach her.

After all, the monks were too obsessed with worshipping her and using her influence to do what they wanted to teach her the basics of life. She wasn't a goddess. She was just a woman with a penchant for adventure. And if people did not like that, well, then that was their problem, because the Siren did not plan on changing.

A moment or two later, and the situation had normalised, and the Vault Hunter resumed their pleasantries and casual small talk while Zer0 and Axton focussed on driving their respective ships on the right path towards Gemini.

They surveyed the surroundings, as Elpis and Helios grew larger in their vision. There were numerous ships whizzing around and away from Elpis, while multiple shocks were docking or leaving from Helios, with the odd moonshot every now and then. It was so busy there, which disconcerted Matt given the peace that was space.

Both Aurora and the Anomaly were compelled to turn on the one-way glass filter, just to be certain that no one would recognise them and alert either Hyperion or Gemini. The anomalous Vault Hunter leaned forward on the console and activated the filter. After all, being invisible would be suspicious considering Gemini had detected them anyway.

They were now almost entirely undetectable.

Elpis loomed every larger, its mostly barren landscape inviting you in, yet implying there was some ulterior threat. It mattered that this was where they were going. The state of it may have been worse than Pandora, however it seemed to have some…welcoming aura which attracted you to come further. Even if, perhaps, the actual landscape seemed threatened.

Even so, Hyperion's method of influence, Helios, blocked most of Elpis's natural "beauty" with its obnoxious H logo. It was an annoying pest of a space station, like a tall guy at a cinema – always in the way. Handsome Jack was dead and wasn't coming back, so it was almost insult that Hyperion still decided to act like it mattered anymore. It had a vacant office at the top level.

Gemini. That's what mattered now. While the corporation _was_ in a secretive partnership with Hyperion, it was not unknown to any of the Vault Hunters that Gemini had surpassed them when it came to power. Not only did they have more money (despite Hyperion _still_ profiting off of Eridium) but they possessed much more resources and access to their own army along with a mercenary team of Vault Hunters.

Undoubtedly, though, Hyperion possessed much more influence over the galaxy, mainly the Medusa sector, where Pandora, and therefore Elpis, resided. They were perfectly capable of implementing tactical force across the galaxy, but not their own rules. That was why Gemini started their partnership with them, because it would help aid in increasing their influence across the Medusa sector – allowing them to get one step closer to owning and ruling the entire constellation.

Ignobly, perhaps, since once they did gain enough control, Gemini probably wouldn't even think twice about dropping Hyperion. However, Hyperion wasn't stupid, they could easily erase any influence they constructed, while also forcing them to share increased control. So, the two corporations were locked in a stalemate which took a while to become a somewhat friendly one.

Their combined forces might've posed a severe threat, if the acting CEO of Hyperion and the director of Gemini could actually reign in their differences and work together. Auspiciously so, it was good for the Crimson Raiders that they did not sort out their problems they had with each other, and only shared mutual respect, since it made it easier for them to target two somewhat powerful companies, rather than one incredibly powerful corporation unified under partnered leadership. Their disputes were not conducive for a successful outcome, and would only serve to further their problems.

Matt wasn't complaining, however, since it made it much easier to outwit them.

'Matt, do you wonder if there is such a thing as fate?' Lilith inexplicably asked him. The Anomaly thought about it for a second.

'I'd like to think there is. I wouldn't have to worry about how my every move would impact the future.'

'I believe in fate,' Maya commented. 'I think some things are destined to happen.'

'I dunno,' Mordecai and Axton said at similar times.

'It's always an enigma to me,' Lilith told them all. 'Personally, I think people interpret fate as what you call something you can't explain.'

'And it isn't?' Aurora supposed gingerly. The Siren nodded, although she knew that the Revolverslinger would not see it over the ECHO.

'No, not really. I think fate is determined by the superior and powerful. The world is a playground for the larger influencers, while the would-bes and the never-wills are squashed like bugs on the concrete.' Lilith seemed confident in claiming that, sounding almost as sagacious as Matt when he delved into speeches.

'The world isn't exactly innocent, either,' the Anomaly pointed out. 'The world is a vampire that drains you of your blood. What matters is remaining in the sunlight.'

Most of the Vault Hunters had difficulty understanding what he meant by that, or indeed what "remaining in the sunlight" was. The red-haired Siren herself nodded quite avidly at his statement, either understanding what he meant or pretending to.

Idle chatter filled the ECHO, as they approached Elpis, unknown to Gemini.

Matt was not one to say how simpler this rescue mission was getting was pleasant. However, he did not want to be a killjoy and say that it was unsettling. His instincts – Siren instincts, probably – told the Anomaly to stay alert, just like they warned him that his actions had a butterfly effect. Luckily, he was focussing on not showing his discomfort, which meant it was working quite well.

Maybe the mission to save Gaige was going to run smoothly throughout, maybe not.

* * *

Commander Sharp was sitting in his office again, having returned from an errand given by the director.

Director Samael McCain liked to do that quite often, likely to keep James busy. Since the director knew Sharp personally, he was aware of how willing the commander was to accept work at a moment's notice. Back in the old days, when they worked for an IT company for some 'whimsical' form of work experience, Sharp had outshined his compatriot on nearly every task. Dare Samael say that he was glad neither of them ending up taking the job.

Despite his angelic name, McCain was anything but pure. "Mercy" wasn't in his vocabulary, and instead it was replaced by "necessity." The director had worked hard to build Gemini up from the ashes the founder had recklessly left it in, and in that time, he'd done many things, many of which most sapient beings would be remorseful of.

Not Samael McCain, and certainly not Commander James Sharp, either.

Some would say that Samael's very blood was venomous and malicious.

Sharp thought this over a few times in his head, before returning for the task he's gone back to his office for. Reaching for his holographic projector, the leader of Gemini's military battalion pressed the button to activate it. The man sifted through the database, eventually finding the security footage he was looking for.

It was from a couple minutes ago, and it was about Test Subject #239, known simply as Krieg. On the footage, he appeared to be having a tantrum or some kind of mental breakdown, whereupon he was ranting about some "meat bicycle" and how the psycho could not last any longer without it. Some weird-ass shit like that.

In the end, he was 'disposed' of using a high-dosage sedative provided by the inimitable Three, along with a few blows to the head for good measure.

The event coincided with Three attempting to inject a fraction of an inch more of her beloved perhexiline, causing the young Mechromancer's scream to ring throughout the facility. Her cries actually made Sharp wonder if they needed to update the sound-proofing around all of Lima Base One.

This psycho man, who screamed about salting the wound and stripping the flesh, seemed to share a soft spot for Gaige. They unsure why, since they were entirely unaware who he actually was. "Krieg" was clearly not his real name, seen as though it derived from the German word for war. And there was no use attempting to get information out him.

Krieg had been found wandering out in the middle of nowhere, some deserted location in Pandora similar to the Dust yet wholly different. In his path were a series of smashed Pandoran Security turrets which were intended to prevent people from going out too far to places they'd surely die in. **(A/N: I made the name up since those border turrets are never actually given one. They're definitely not Hyperion, since they show up in Borderlands 1.)** Most of Gemini was left to wonder why he did it, or why he had gotten in such a fit as to angrily destroy them.

If he knew Gaige, then that likely meant he knew the Crimson Raiders, and therefore the Vault Hunters. But what was a man like _that_ doing with such a clear-headed group of warriors such as the Raiders? There was also a possibility that he was yet another Vault Hunter, however Krieg seemed less than sane enough to take on a Vault in any capacity.

Given his catatonic-like respirator, it was easy to deduce that the man had been experimented on, especially considering the surgical scars that littered his body. That and, he kept ranting about some "psychopathic purple liquid" which could only have been inferred to be slag.

Which, of course, led them straight to Hyperion. They found his bounty contract, set to an exuberantly high one-hundred billion dollars, outlining him as Hyperion property, like Matt. Commander Sharp immediately assumed he was the result of slag experimentation, which would've driven anyone insane. Whoever he might have been before it, it had been almost entirely replaced by this psycho persona that dominated him now.

The footage he was watching was only around thirty-five seconds long, but he noticed how the psycho perked up at the mention of Gaige by Three eighteen seconds in. That certainly proved that he was at least on decent ground with the Mechromancer.

On the footage also, Krieg appeared to not only be talking to himself, but replying to himself or responding with something apparently only he heard. Three recognised his schizophrenia. Although she preferred herself a chemist, Three still had a degree in psychology and psychiatry, so identifying such a condition was easy for her. And she immediately noticed that Krieg was hearing voices, or at least just one.

If Three were to have hazarded a guess, the psycho likely heard a 'sane' voice, possibly a remnant his original psyche, or perhaps just his mind's way of keeping the insane side in check.

Three had figured almost all of that out after seeing the footage before Sharp did, shortly after she finished her primary drug torture on Gaige.

The door slid open in front of him. Arcturus Vaus the Swift stepped in, managing a brief bow to his superior.

'Do you need something, Mr Vaus?' Sharp inquired, not liking being interrupted like that.

'Sir, I wanted to inform you that two Gemini ships are approaching Lima Base One. It's coming from the Armoury mission, possibly to fill in details.' The commander frowned.

'I never requested that.'

'It was authorised by Director McCain.'

'That mission's still open-ended, so there should be no need for them to return at this current time.'

The Swift immediately grew concerned. The ships were entirely authorised by the AI system, and the pilots had entered the correct access code, not to mention they passed voice recognition.

 _How could you pass voice recognition if you aren't who you say you are?_ Arcturus wondered, before the realisation hit him like a truck. _C-Digistructors._

'C-Digistructors,' he said out loud, catching his superior's attention. 'You don't think Matt and Aurora have…?'

'It seems possible. It would sense since Mr Rye or Ms Lux could've learnt the security access code at any time.' His mentioning of that reminded Vaus of another thing.

'There's another thing: the AI said that an Unimportance Code was activated moments after the rogues gained authorisation.' Commander Sharp raised an eyebrow.

'On who?' He asked.

'You, sir.'

That wasn't surprising. If it really _was_ Matt and Aurora on those ships, then they certainly would not want the battalion leader aware of their oncoming arrival. He would've immediately figured out that it was likely them.

'Interesting. _Very_ interesting,' the man mused.

'Do you want to me have our defences shoot it down?' The Vault Hunter asked attentively.

'Of course not, you idiot!' James scolded. 'Those ships have _two_ essentials in them, namely, Matt! You shoot it down and you kill them! Are you forgetting that we _need_ Matt to open the Vault?!'

'Understood, sir, but aren't they, on all fronts, the "bad guys"?' He protested carefully. Sharp sighed, and calmed down before giving his response.

'Don't be so puerile,' the military leader warned him. 'There _are_ no "bad guys" around here. Good and evil are only concepts made by those who wish not to be thought ill of.'

'Of course sir, I apologise for my indiscretion.'

'You are forgiven. Now, let them come. Once we have Mr Rye and, possibly, Ms Lux, we can kill them. Only then. Are we understood?' The commander firmly demanded.

'Yes, sir.'

'Good. Now leave me.' The Vault Hunter nodded, and left soon afterwards.

Soon enough, Mr Rye would fall into his hands so easily, and the Anomaly would have no clue about it. The Anomaly may have been quite intelligent, but his brain wasn't a godsend nor could it have outwitted the commander. Then again, Mr Rye was leagues above stupidity.

Nevertheless, the Anomaly did not need to be _that_ smart anyway. His purpose was not to add strategy or figure anything important out. No, the point of the Anomaly soon quickly became apparent following the Genisys Project, which was to open the Vault. Whether Mr Rye was aware that his link to the Vault meant only could open it was unknown to him, but, in due time, the Anomaly would serve his purpose.

And if they could get an expert gunfighter like Ms Lux back into the fray, then that would be useful too. It seemed highly unlikely that she'd re-join them unless her pathetically blatant crush did so too, and there was no chance in _hell_ that _that_ was going to happen.

Sharp considered how Three might've been getting on with Gaige.

His subordinate had definitely been trying hard to crack the egg, seemingly to little avail. It seemed as though, at every point, when it seemed they were getting somewhere, the Mechromancer's incomparable drive left them a few steps behind. And that was clearly starting to annoy Three, since she'd already delivered her proposal on Gaige's character, expecting that the Mechromancer would finally admit that she was not an individual Vault Hunter. Alas, it had not happened yet.

He got up and walked towards Three's ward. If luck was on his side, then she may have been getting somewhere in the past fifteen to twenty minutes. Although, given the unyielding perseverance of the bothersome, childish Gaige, it seemed unlikely.

Wandering the halls, he looked at the bustling nature of Lima Base One: the never-ending movement of Gemini guards; the occasional blaring over the megaphone system by one of the four wardens of each sector and the loud screaming the less than sane prisoners. Within these hallways, Commander Sharp carried an imposing influence that impelled people to move out of his way.

Every so often, he would see one his core Gemini Vault Hunters walking around, presumably to their next stage of training.

Lima Base One was an enigma.

It was truly colossal, since it was the primary version on Elpis. Lima Base Two and Three were half and a third the size respectively, but served specific purposes. LB1, as it was abbreviated, was intended for preliminary solder/Vault Hunter training as well as holding POWs – much like the (ironically named) Friendship Gulag did before it was blown up.

Meanwhile LB2 was responsible for economic management – dealing with Gemini's financial side as well as tackling potential future problems. An example would problems that may arise if or when they gained control of the entire galaxy. Mainly, this focussed specifically on Pandora's side of things, since money gained from the technology to be found in the Vault would be easier managed on the moon nearby, where it also happened to safer.

If the corporation's Pandora-based wealth spiralled out of control, then they would likely have to upgrade LB2 to accommodate.

Lima Base Three focussed on technological and mechanical development. It had multiple labs of multiple different types where scientists, roboticists, arms dealers, and others could experiment and invent and build. LB3 had even recently gotten an extension whereupon there was a new factory (designated LB3-3) where Gemini Loaders could be built from, and promptly dispatched using Helios's moonshots. LB3-3 had proven to be very useful in getting the Gemini Loaders in the ex-Fort Knoxx and the ex-Hyperion Exploitation Preserve.

Once Gemini repossessed the technology from the Vault, they would likely have to build new labs so that the Eridian tech could be experimented with and researched properly. And if Gemini's Loaders became more mainstream like Hyperion's (Sharp certainly hoped they would), then LB3-3 may have to be built even bigger so more could be made and dispatched from Helios. The commander was also looking – well, _getting others_ to look for – alternative ways to dispatch the robots since he did not want to rely on Hyperion. Not while Helios was under threat from the Crimson Raiders. **(A/N: And Rhys!)**

It was a lot more complicated that suddenly taking ownership of the entire galaxy.

However, there was no doubt that once they _did_ take control, the central hub would likely have to spread across a few planets. While Elpis would control Pandora, it wasn't the only place important to them. Other planets had Vaults that they needed to hunt. All across the galaxy, each with a different Vault Monster inside that prevented you from gaining the technology within.

Even so, Vaults were not the only thing that mattered to Gemini, and certainly to Commander Sharp. He may have been stationed on Elpis a few months to aid in the capture of the Vault, but that didn't mean it was the only thing he cared about. Director McCain had directly ordered him to keep a tight hold on the military side.

And once the company succeeded, they would focus on a policing order that would as strong and highly trained as possible. They needed to be in order to keep the entire constellation under control. That included Promethea, Darios, Atrios-6, Titan, Castor, Divaloca, and of course, Pandora. Out of all them, they desired and endeavoured to build their largest base on Castor, given how rich the planetary government was how diverse the wildlife and flora was.

Sharp approached Three's door. It was a pristine, politically correct white colour, which drew little attention due to how especially boring and purely inoffensive it was. Looking at it almost induced a yawn, if there was not also an aura around it that told you not to enter unless you were Commander Sharp or if it was actually necessary – or both.

He knocked uncaringly. Three didn't have any right to snap at him for knocking and interrupting her session. After all, he could snap his fingers and he could probably drug her and dump her on a planet beginning with any flippant letter of the alphabet.

To be fair, though, Samael could do the same thing to him.

Except there was no way _that_ was ever going to happen.

Three opened the door wore a face of annoyance for a split-second before it switched to a respectful look upon realizing it was her superior.

'Sir, is there something you need?' She enquired respectfully. He stepped into the room without initially answering her, causing Three to walk backwards and silently dwarf under his imposing influence.

'I wanted to see how you were getting on,' he reasoned.

'Don't we have CCTV you could've watched?' She cautiously asked.

'I thought I'd talk to Gaige.' Gaige's head snapped towards him as soon as he said that, but didn't say anything.

 _[Bad man…]_ That came out as a mumble but no one heard it.

Sharp walked towards the girl and waited for her to say something. _Anything._ She didn't.

'Quiet, are we now?' The commander asked, looking into her eyes. They were practically lifeless, no fire in them, no energy, and no visible reaction to what he just said. Her pupils were dilated and unfocussed, as if she was daydreaming, but the dream she had was just blank whiteness, rather than anything pensive.

James shook her shoulders a little, and abruptly her pupils contracted and focussed. Her aura of stubborn defiance returned again. But there was something else. It was right out in the open, as emotions tended to be with Gaige.

Clear, and obvious.

Rage.

'What d'you want, sharp dick?' The Mechromancer childishly insulted, ironically with a much less child-like insult.

'I see,' he observed, ignoring her question. 'She's barely hanging on, isn't she?'

'Sir, I've gone through _three_ injections now and this stupid girl won't give up.'

'That's impossible.'

'I know,' Three confirmed in disbelief. 'The mitochondrial carnitine should have been completely been inhibited beyond repair, but for some reason, Gaige is able to withstand and resist against its antianginal effects.'

'I'm _right_ here, shit-face,' the Mechromancer deadpanned, reminding them of the girl's feeble presence.

'You don't even understand what we're talking about,' Three shot back.

'I may not understand _every_ single, but you basically just said, "fuck! The drug's not working!"' She disputed, silencing the voice.

'Well then, _Gaige_ ,' Sharp responded, cleanly putting emphasis on her name as though it itself was an insult. 'Admittedly, I admire your willpower. No one before has _ever_ managed to stay sane after three injections. Most people are begging for death by now.'

'I _do_ aim to _impress_ ,' the girl laughed sarcastically, desperately hiding her inner emotions.

'She _was_ showing evidence of schizophrenia earlier,' Three pointed out victoriously.

'Then you should look a little more carefully,' her commander scolded. Practically by a snap of his fingers, the woman lost her victorious smirk in favour of a more contritely humble approach. Her penitent look made Gaige snigger slightly.

'We have a back-up, sir,' she reassured, trying to deter their subject from making fun of their predicament.

'Well, by all means, do divulge.'

'Perhaps not in the presence of the patient we're going to use it _on_ , commander.'

'Yeah, you might be right on that, Three,' Sharp agreed, directing his hand towards the door. 'My office.' His third in command nodded acceptingly, and she walked out with Sharp behind her.

Meanwhile Gaige was left alone. Isolated; left to ponder her situation.

The Mechromancer wished she had some kind of telepathic connection to her friends so that she could tell if they were coming. Or at least that the girl had her ECHO or was in access of her metal arm.

Her metal arm's technology had been deactivated and it was unmoving. Some of the joints had been bent and twisted too, exposing wires with plastic casings that threatened to peel off at any moment and electrocute her. Gaige had gotten so used to using it so much that the feeling of limpness irritated her but the Mechromancer could not feel the cold metal sitting against her upper arm.

She closed her eyes and unclenched her fist, no longer tensing. Things stood still and quiet. The Vault Hunter was pathetically alone. It was cruel irony that the most talkative and loud person in the galaxy had no one at the moment to project her thoughts onto.

Elpis practically relaxed, entirely unaware of the oncoming storm which took the name Gaige. Or Matt. It was unclear which one.

* * *

 **Maybe not an incredible cliff-hanger, but this was getting too long and I had to slice it in half. So Chapter Twenty-Five will follow on immediately from this one.**

 **Also, the whole Doctor Ted thing is a homage to the theory about his existence amongst the Borderlands 2 community. I've seen it around and I honestly really liked the idea of it, so I decided to briefly mention him in _Rising Shot_ (Chapter Seven). I realized it would be fun to properly talk about him, but the idea got pushed back when the story moved forward. When I got to the scene at the start, where the characters were engaging in small talk, it seemed the perfect time to talk about Doctor Ted. By the way, Doctor Ted's 'crusade' of sorts to eliminate poverty since he thought it was a disease was entirely my idea - although Promethea was an obvious choice.**

 **Meanwhile, the claim that the security code is commonly used may sound stupid, but it's not like _everyone_ would know it's a common code. Anyone who does would not know who uses it anyway.**

 **I'm trying to write as fast as I can, but this plot line is the penultimate one before the Vault, so it's kinda like the "final hurdle" before – what I plan to be – the most exciting and/or fulfilling thread in the entire story. It should be fitting for an epilogue, but this means that Gaige's kidnapping is slightly less entertaining considering what it's supposed to be succeeded by.**

 **So yeah, that's my thoughts. Don't be surprised if it takes a while before you get the next chapter.**

 **(P/S: If you actually read this, write a review saying "Wyron == Ted".)**

 **(Just kidding. That'd be dumb.)**


	25. Deathmark

**Here arrives another one! Took a while to get going, but really picked up towards the end. Gets a bit scientific with Matt's powers, specifically with how some if it works and the rate at which he slows time down. Also, some hints at the beginning about the 'voice', but you're going to have to figure that out for yourself.**

 **As I said before, this chapter follows immediately on from the last, so the perspective starts with Gaige. This is where the hints about Gaige's deeply rooted psychological problems come to the forefront and are fully revealed. Hope they make sense!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Five: Deathmark**

* * *

With every minute passing by, Gaige was getting angrier and more annoyed about the situation. She _had_ to get out of here. She also _didn't_. Her mind was split between her ideals, and it couldn't focus.

But all from torture?

Surely not, right?

While, yes, torture could get so intense you may go insane, however, having full-on conversations with another imaginary voice was on the complete other end of the insanity spectrum.

Gaige could not help the feeling that it was coming from somewhere else. An ulterior source; not entirely from her own perception. She couldn't put her figure on it, but it was helped along by the fact that the voice just didn't sound at all like her, even though it was her voice. It was almost as if someone was _using_ her voice, to communicate, rather than her mind creating some personality from all of her dark emotions.

Gaige was intelligent. _Very_ intelligent. However, she may have been smart – yet she wasn't smart enough to figure out _that_ enigma.

There was nothing in her half-shattered mind that could come up with that.

 _[Move yourself away from that subject.]_

 _Why?_

 _[It doesn't matter.]_

 _Who are you?_

 _[Wouldn't you like to know?]_

 _WHO. ARE. YOU._

 **[Silence.]**

The alternate voice warped slightly, and it started to sound less like Gaige. It seemed distorted, as though it was corrupted. That was incredibly unnerving for the Mechromancer to hear, since she knew now that this…voice was not tolerating her argumentative behaviour.

 _I don't get it. You aren't a part of my mind, are you? What makes you think you have some right to invade my consciousness?_

 **[Do not place yourself on some pedestal. You aren't perfect.]**

 _It sounds like I should be asking WHAT you are._

 **[I'll tell you what** ** _you_** **are.]**

The intimidating tone scared her, and that was impossible to hide, especially for a girl who shows her emotions on a whim. And whatever the voice was – part of her or not – it seemed to have full access to her entire mind, which meant it _knew_ she was afraid.

 **[Gaige. Title: Mechromancer. Age: 18. 19 in a few months. A fake. You're not** ** _really_** **a Vault Hunter.**

 **Look inside your soul. You have fears. Your peers – they became Vault Hunters as a decision over years of training. All of them have had experience, either due to their age, their battles, or both. How did** ** _you_** **become a Vault Hunter?]**

The Vault Hunter didn't quite grasp what in God's holy name the voice was going on about. Or at least, the Mechromancer _thought_ she didn't. Gaige wasn't sure, since most of her feelings about Vault Hunting had been repressed and shoved down since she knew there were things far more important than questioning her own status. When she got mixed up with the war against Hyperion and the fiery dispute against Handsome Jack, that all got pushed to the side.

Now, it was coming to the forefront. Slowly.

 _When I got on that train. After I escaped the law. After I saw that chance for a new life and ran away. That's when I became a Vault Hunter._

 **[You are dwarfed under the influence of your Vault Hunter superiors. The pathetic thing is that you don't even see it. But I** ** _know_** **you can** ** _feel_** **it.]**

She asked the only question that came to her.

 _How?_

 **[We are connected. We have been since your mind opened up from the torture.]**

 _So you aren't a part of my mind…you must be…something else._

 **[I am the infinite.]**

Gaige had no idea what that meant, but it certainly sounded menacing.

 **[But you. You became a Vault Hunter on a whim. Without realizing, without considering, what it entailed. A reckless gesture.]**

Her eyes widened and her muscles tensed despite her restraints. She… _it_ …wasn't wrong. It _was_ reckless. She _didn't_ consider the possibilities, or what might happen. The Mechromancer never initially thought that saying she was a Vault Hunter would immediately put a bounty over her head. She may have already had one, but it certainly intensified thanks to Jack when she jumped on that train which changed her life.

 **[As I said before, your friends spent time training before they took on that title. They all had a drive, a solid reason, to want to become a Vault Hunter.**

 ** _You_** **didn't.**

 **That's your fear. You don't compare to the others. You're the youngest of all of them. You're the most inexperienced of all of them. I have been watching over events for the past few years –** ** _I know._ ]**

She could barely think about what the elusive voice was talking about when it said it had seen everything as it happened.

 **[You're scared you'll be left behind. You're afraid that, because you are inexperienced, that means you don't deserve to be a Vault Hunter. That it means you're a fake who isn't really there.**

 **It's true. And you** ** _know it._** **]**

 _N-no…it-it's…_

 **[Of course, that comes from the guilt over Marcie Holloway's death. You killed an innocent person. Vault Hunters tend not to do that; Vault Hunters only kill those directly opposing them, specifically those who have committed bad deeds.**

 **Ironic, isn't it? You know, since** ** _you_** **are the one who has committed a bad deed.]**

Hearing all of this was overbearing. A lot to take in. This was stuff she had pushed down to the cloudy confines of her mind. It was not something she liked to think about too often, and something that was slowly and forcefully forgotten over time.

Worst of all, she couldn't deny it. Deep down, Gaige knew there was truth behind it. She could not lie and claim it wasn't true. Whoever this personality was, it was certainly smart.

Marcie being brought up did not help all too much. Simply, it was too painful for her truly to want to think about. The initial guilt over the accident had always consumed her due to her part in it, mainly because the innocent albeit petty girl's death was a mistake on her part specifically.

The fact that it claimed it had been watching over events of the past few years was unnerving, too, since it made her realize that it would know almost everything about her. _However,_ that did not explain why it decided to break its silent observation and talk to her directly. _Or_ what "it" even was.

 _I-I…y-you…_

 **[Oh, poor, impudent Gaige! It seems I've broken you.]**

What part of this was funny?

 **[You're below your superiors, so stop pretending you even have the right to so much as** ** _stand next_** **to them.**

 **It's interesting, truthfully. Your aspiration is** ** _not_** **to be seen as a little girl and as a steely, tough character. You** ** _dream_** **to be comparable to others. I find that peculiar.**

 **You have a dream. I control the dream. I** ** _am_** **the dream. The possibilities are infinite. I mark the infinite. I embody all not finite.]**

Had Gaige been able to form coherent sentences, she might've asked what the hell this voice was talking about. What was it referring to when it spoke of the "dream" and the "infinite"? Why was it so fascinated in both? It seemed to speak of them like they were physical or personified entities, rather than concepts.

She had to force herself to speak, since the shock of the truth about her psyche being laid out on her – and her subsequent acceptance of it – didn't make it easy to focus.

 _G-Get out of m-my head…_ _ **NOW.**_

 **[My work here is done. I had to access your tormented mental state so I could hurry things along.]**

 _W-what do you m-mean, "hurry things along"?_

 **[Irrelevant. Listen, Mechromancer, to what I have to conclude with.]**

 _O-OK._

 **[When Matt arrives here to save you] –** the voice warped into something else. No longer recognisable at all as Gaige's, but completely different. A different, sweeter sounding, more feminine voice – **[I want you to give him a message. He'll understand it instantly. These exact words:**

 **{The only water that flows in the forest is the river.}**

And finally, the voice faded away. Completely gone, leaving the Vault Hunter completely alone. It was never a schizoid-induced personality that manifested from the darker aspects of her soul; it was something completely different.

Something anomalous.

* * *

Axton and Zer0 had no difficulty in landing the ships on the ground of Elpis, near Lima Base One.

The base was not under alert at all, which was pleasing, as they made sure not to be so close that they would even see their arrival. While the Gemini stationed there were aware of their impending entrance to the base, it wasn't like any of them were planning on greeting them. To them, it was only soldiers loyally returning to base.

However, it was anything but that.

A reckoning was in order.

They slowly got off the ship, as not to draw attention to themselves. While they were quite a distance from Lima Base One, it would not be hard for the station to spot unidentified roamers if they made too much movement or too much noise. Although, Matt did not want to waste too much time trying not to get caught, when they'd likely have to in order to get Gaige back. Stealth may have been the preferred option, but no one could stay hidden forever.

Elpis's barren surface had been heavily impacted by Eridian mining and heavy pollution thanks to Hyperion, so any natural beauty it may have had had worn away into some new form of exquisite beauty that was interesting to observe. "Interesting" was perhaps the best way to describe Pandora's moon. It had lakes of lava and glowing slag, which were revealed often by crevices and winding crevasses in the moon's marvellously unattractive wasteland.

However, Elpis's exceptionally underwhelming appearance was the least of Matt's problems.

They took out their guns, Matt holding his Double Anarchy tightly, and walked across the surface. The Vault Hunters considered small talk, but were well-aware the time for idly chatting had passed, and had been fulfilled enough back on the jump-ships.

It was still a lingering enquiry in Matt's mind about what he should do with Commander James Sharp. The Anomaly could not lie that he had an instant desire to kill the man, but he had to stop himself from considering it. His bloodlust was controllable – however the Vault Hunter's rage had already proven to be unmatched. Mainly, that was due to how his Chronokinesis was linked to his emotions somewhat.

Would killing the battalion leader really be justified? The man had not tried to kill him, although he had tried to _use_ him on numerous occasions now that the Vault Hunter thought about it. With that to think about, it was not unbelievable that the commander would attempt to do it again.

But the line between good and evil had always been grey. Not clear; quite vague. Most people were neutral and straddled the line between them, while many others had their own interpretations of both. What side of the line was the Anomaly _really_ on?

That was something the Vault Hunter did _not_ want answering.

Despite the past few hours, he had not forgotten about what his sister had said to him.

 _'_ _I'm waiting for you.'_

The Anomaly flinched.

Matt could've sworn he heard that in the real world. Perhaps a whisper, very faint, but the Vault Hunter was certain that wasn't his imagination. He looked around frantically for a few seconds, avoiding the eyes of his teammates as to evade questions.

 _'_ _I'm here.'_

There it was again. There was no way that the young man could've made that up in his head. However, it had no discernible source.

 _'_ _When the time comes, you will know what to do.'_

What was she expecting him to do? Waiting for him to do what? Amelia was supposed to be dead, yet it seemed to him that her soul still persisted. Aurora had tried to dissuade him from thinking this, so that he would not get his hopes up. Now it seemed her efforts were pointless.

Or there was the other, more plausible-sounding theory: the Anomaly had finally been chucked into the loony bin. And would need aid from Three immediately.

Going insane was at the bottom of Matt's list of potentials. Not to mention it would not be helpful for his friends if he went and did that. The Anomaly was too focussed now to get distracted anyway – though it was rare that he _wasn't_ focussed. Psychologically, he was fine, or fine enough, perhaps Three would've agreed. Insanity tended to eat away at the mind, bit by bit until all sense of reason was lost. Three said that.

And Matt was _always_ trying to be reasonable.

Reason, however, was not promised to get you through ever single situation. Reason was regularly defied in the world of the abnormal. In addition, doing what was reasonable was not always right, and doing what was wrong was easy. Doing wrong was the easy way out, the choice you would go for when you stopped caring. Or when you didn't know what the benign option was. Unclear lines aside, others could tell fairly easily when someone had dipped into the blackened waters and gone to the dark side. Handsome Jack was the prime example.

The Anomaly wasn't a saint, however.

Undoubtedly, he'd made many mistakes in his time, and would certainly make many more. Matt had problems, many of which the young man was still afraid to face. There were things he'd done that he wasn't proud of, and actions he'd taken which he would give almost anything to undo. There was no Anomaly without regrets, Amelia being the prime example, but he knew at the very least that he was not evil. However, there always was a fear rooted deep in his mind that one day he would cross that line. And possibly never come back.

If that day was inevitable, then it would have to wait. He couldn't become evil now. Well, he didn't _want_ to be corrupted, but even if that time would arise, it was not now – because he had a job to do first.

All his instincts were telling him to stay alert. They were also telling him his ascension was coming: whatever that meant. Of course, the Vault Hunter could only take this to be that the opening was coming. That thought was amplified by the fact that his link to the Vault detected its presence into _this_ plane of existence, rather than the _metaphysical_ one. His subconscious will felt waning, like it was draining, telling the Anomaly that he could not keep the Vault closed much longer. But even so, the Vault Key charged by itself, anyway, so the Vault could still open anyway. Likely, his connection was merely delaying the inevitable.

When would the Vault open, though? Matt knew from his vision that he could open it, and only him. Yet, Sharp could theoretically wait until it opened by itself. Matt could lead them to the Vault, although he had no reason to. While the commander had someone, so very close, who could provide him with the riches and power that was his mission to gain, but the Anomaly had no reason to aid him in his wretched crusade.

No. Commander Sharp _did_. Commander Sharp had Gaige. It was obvious. Matt knew that Commander Sharp kidnapped her so that he would co-operate with Gemini, but initially, he did not know for what.

Now he did. It was a leading back to Commander Sharp. It was leading back to his blasted agenda.

Matt stopped walking, clenching his fists in unbridled fury. His allies stared at him.

'Matt?' Lilith asked.

'You all right?' Axton enquired.

 _'_ _The Vault.'_

'What?' Aurora asked, gingerly edging closer to him.

'That's why he took Gaige,' the Anomaly told them. 'Because he wants to force me into servitude. He wants to force my hand. With Gaige in his hands, he believes that he can… _coerce_ …me into opening the Vault for him.'

'What do you mean, "opening the Vault for him" exactly?' Maya wondered, furrowing her brow in confusion.

'The Vault can only be opened through an input of Siren-based power in order to open it early,' The Anomaly explained guiltily. 'Power that only I can provide.' Aurora nodded knowingly.

'How interesting / The Vault's certainly unique / It is quite strange.'

' _Where_ did you learn _that?!'_ Mordecai demanded, glaring at him angrily.

'Vision. I had it a couple days ago.' the Vault Hunter singlehandedly admitted, clearly not sounding proud that he knew it.

'You had a vision?' Lilith realised. 'Of what?'

'It was of the future. We had finally gotten to the Vault. It was there that it was said by Caine that…only I could open it. The Vault opens naturally when it comes into the physical purview, but I can do so early and pull it into this dimension using my link to it.'

'When we you planning on telling us this, Matt?!' Maya immediately yelled at him, slightly glad that they weren't close enough for Lima Base One to detect them. That would be conducive if they weren't going to get caught.

'This could've been _incredibly_ useful to know this sooner, Matt!' Axton agreed.

'So Sharp knows this, and is using Gaige to make you do what he wants?' Lilith presumed, not fazed by her teammates' evident dispute. Everyone had their secrets.

'We can't work as team if we're lying to each other, slab,' Brick advised.

'Why couldn't you have mentioned this before, amigo?' The Hunter wondered, not sounding _too_ aggressive but clearly not sounding very happy.

'Because we all _died!'_ The Anomaly bellowed, making them freeze at his outburst. 'In the very same vision, we all died taking down the Vault. Mostly by the hands of the Vault Monster.'

'That's…morbid,' Salvador muttered, surprising the others that he knew the meaning of the word.

'Did you see what the Vault Monster was?' The redheaded Siren in front of him inquired carefully. He shook his head.

'No my vision blacked it out,' he told them.

'Any clue as to what it was?'

'Not really. It was weird, though. It had this roar, and it sounded… _human._ '

'It must be able to mimic living beings in some way…' she mused, to which her fellow compatriot nodded. Maya and Mordecai stared at Aurora, who looked completely unaffected at the coming of this "news" and was merely looking at Matt fervently.

'You don't seem to care that Matt lied about his knowledge about the Vault,' the Siren probed. 'I thought you would care.'

'Uh, well…um…' the Revolverslinger desperately attempted to reason. Mordecai easily put two and two together by her nervous behaviour.

'You _knew_ , didn't you?!' He immediately accused, to which Aurora could not really deny. Flagrantly, the Hunter was correct.

'Gaige knows, too.' That immediately set them off. Aurora had learnt from Matt that he'd told Gaige first, but it was plainly the fact that three of the Vault Hunters had been lying to the other six. If Maya and Mordecai were angry before, they were fucking furious now. They opened their mouths, and were about to completely go off on Matt, but he stopped them before they could speak.

'Guys, I am really sorry for lying to you,' the Anomaly contritely apologised. 'I just really didn't want to lower morale and make you doubt yourselves because of me. I'm not going to let that premonition come true, for sure, but I didn't want you to be distracted, especially if it was because of me.' He hung his head low, and much to his surprise, Maya put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

'It's OK, Matt. I get it,' she understood. 'We all have our secrets. While I don't enjoy being perjured to, I know you'd never do it without a good reason.' Axton sighed.

'She's right,' he concurred, to the behest of Mordecai. 'You're not one to lie out of ill intent.'

'Just don't lie again, unless it's _absolutely_ necessary,' the Hunter warned him, making it clear that "absolutely necessary" allowed for only a small margin of things. Matt nodded in compliance, although still evidently furious that Sharp was trying to get to him using the people he cared about. They could see that.

'I get that you're angry, Matty,' Aurora told him. 'But try not to distracted, OK? It'd be a little hypocritical.' The Anomaly chuckled at that humorous statement, aware that it was incontrovertible that he would be a hypocrite if he got distracted. However, the Vault Hunter could not deny that the desire to make Sharp pay for what he was attempting to do was overwhelming. _How_ exactly Matt would do that, he did not truly know.

After a minute, the group continued walking, with the Anomaly's gait soon normalising. Ironic, perhaps. Although, it was clear it was partly – if not mostly – an act.

After a while, they reached a metal gate, where Matt and Aurora stopped them. It wasn't a normal gate, as it was entirely an energy barrier, metal bars replaced by blue energy, but two large metal poles stood tall beside both of them, rather incongruously, as though they were not meant to be there. A large fence stretched around Lima Base One, complete with emancipation beams at the top to prevent people from climbing over and a massive wire mess over its expanse.

'I was expecting there to be cameras,' Axton noted, slightly upset that his plan to sneak past their blind spots was not going to be used.

'There usually are,' the Revolverslinger informed him, curious as to why not. 'Strange.'

'Strange indeed,' the Anomaly said gravely, narrowing his eyes.

'Let's just take this as we can,' Lilith advised. 'I sense no bad air. It is likely Lima Base One is distracted.' Maya thought about nodding that, but she didn't want to take it as a happy coincidence. Matt nodded, but did not fully agree.

'It isn't like they necessarily need them,' the Vault Hunter reasoned. He picked up a worm from the ground, which attempted to bite him, and threw it at the gate. The blue turned to red, and immediately disintegrated it. It quickly turned back to the static blue, leaving shocked expressions on all of the Vault Hunters beside Matt and Aurora. 'This gate only authorises Gemini personnel or anyone specifically on the registry.'

'Then how the hell are we gonna get past it?!' Mordecai commanded for an answer so fervently that it almost scared Matt.

'Let's see…my Bypass set isn't powerful enough to get past Triple-Encryption Grade locks. It's an energy barrier, so it can't be deactivated. The metal is maximum blast-proof, so no luck knocking _that_ down…'

'You're not exactly filling them with hope here, Matty,' Aurora cautioned him.

'I have a plan.'

'That's better.'

'When it detects an unauthorised object, it will scan it and then disintegrate it. After it disintegrates it, there is a fraction of time where it is shut down, before it restarts up again. If I can use my Chronokinesis to slow time at the right moment, then I may be able to get us past the barrier before it can detect any anomalies.' There was a slight snigger at his wording.

'How short is this interval you're talking about?' Maya asked him. The Anomaly shook his head in admittance that he didn't know exactly, before pouting as they tried to think up a suitable estimate.

'Less than a nanosecond, I'd say.'

'How much is a nanosecond?' Axton wondered, not familiar with these areas of science.

'10 the power of -9 seconds,' Aurora explained to him. He looked at her blankly; he tried to figure out how many zeros that would be, until she elaborated further. 'One billionth of a second. 0.000000001 seconds.'

'Damn, that's short,' Brick comically stated.

'I couldn't kill as fast as that,' Salvador commented idly.

'And you're saying that you'll have even _less_ time than _that_ to do it?' Mordecai the Hunter requested confirmation in the most disbelieving way, only accepting it when both the Revolverslinger and the Anomaly nodded. ' _Damn._ Can you even slow time that much? I mean, the last time you got close to that was when you stopped time.'

'I don't know how to do that again, but when I saved you guys from the bomb, that was about a microsecond every two seconds or so. A microsecond is 1000 times faster than a nanosecond, so I'm not sure.' That brought up worried faces. 'But it's the only chance we have.'

There was a unanimous nod about the Vault Hunters, seeing that this was indeed the only option. There was no hope to save Gaige if they didn't at least try. They all _needed_ this to work, for the Mechromancer's sake. Especially now, they could not give up or fail, since they'd gone through quite a lot to try and get her back – even enduring a long trip to Elpis.

'We're all behind you, slab,' Brick assured him, given him a hard smack on the back. Matt recoiling in pain, but his pain resistance meant that it didn't last long.

'You've got this,' Maya assured. Aurora, Lilith, Axton and Mordecai nodded agreeably.

'These powers are yours, Matt,' Lilith persuaded. 'So they will do what _you_ want them to.'

'She's right,' Aurora concurred. 'You need to focus, and control your powers. You've had your Chronokinesis for about a year and half, so you're definitely going to be in tune now more than ever before – especially with the Vault opening – so that means concentration is the key.'

'I don't know much about how your powers work, to be honest, kid,' Axton admitted. 'Heck, the whole "Siren" thing still goes over my head. But I _do_ know your will is unmatched. If you feel they're not doing what you want, I am more than certain that your will can override it.'

'Thanks, guys,' the Vault Hunter acknowledged, cracking a smile.

Carefully, the anomalous young man closed his eyes, and focussed as much as he could on his powers. Allowing the energy to spread to every orifice of his body, every single tissue, down to the last cell. It felt like lightning was surging through his nerves, crackling and snapping at each end. Matt could feel lightning fizzing out of his body, zapping the ground and burning it, but not out of control, unlike the last time he had activated this stage of his Chronokinesis. This new, third stage was perhaps the only way he could slow time to that of less than a nanosecond, despite the fact it took a while to charge up. Though, now with a new level of control, it wouldn't need as much time to do so compared to before.

Time slowed down. Time slowed down more. And slowed down more. And more. And more. _And more._

The dust particles gliding so elegantly through the Elpisian 'air' slowed to a stop; water dripping from crevices in the cooler parts of the moon froze in their movements; the breathing of his allies decelerated as they spread through the air gracefully; Matt felt more compatible with his surroundings than he ever had before. It was as if he could detect and completely interpret and understand each of every single sound wave, or see every single photon, or taste every speck of minerals in the air, or smell each aromatic particle.

An experience like no other. Ineffable to describe, but imaginably…satisfying, or something like that. Electrifying, maybe? Of course, words couldn't be put into words properly to give a proper impression of what it really felt like. Imagine you had access to every single cell in your brain, access to all areas, with full optimisation – beyond that even – of everything your mind and body had to offer. That was a basic idea of what a fraction of the experience was to Matt.

He looked around for an object to throw at the gate. Soon, the Anomaly found a very aggressive bee-ant and tangled it from his index and forefingers to prevent it from biting him. **(A/N: Cross between a bee and an ant. Has a sharp sting, but the toxin also extends to his teeth, so it happens to have a very painful bite.)** Matt had gotten used to having to kill creatures, but he could maybe agree that disintegration was perhaps unjust. But there was no other option.

Aware that he wouldn't have to put much effort in, since with only an input of energy would be needed to throw the insect far enough. The Anomaly merely flicked it lightly, watching carefully as the energy, which he'd transferred to it naturally to keep the object within his speed, ostentatiously leave it and return to him via lightning. It slowed to be in time with everything else, a few moments before it hit the grid.

With a few manipulations of the ebb and flow of time, the Vault Hunter made it so, in about twenty seconds of his perception, it would hit the energy gate. It moved hardly noticeably, but clearly enough so that he could gauge when he should move his friends past the gate. Matt was aware that it would take a microsecond for the bee-ant to disintegrate, which at this current level of slow motion, would occur in a few seconds.

Once it turned red, the Vault Hunter tensed, and slowed time to his current maximum. A tenth of a nanosecond, for every one of his seconds. The bee-ant froze in the now red gate, and was burnt black after ten of his seconds, prior to disintegrating into ash that slowly descended to the floor.

Matt instantly moved his teammates to the gate a few moments before the bug completely disintegrated. Thanks to the slowed down time period, it did not take much effort. They lost most of their weight when he applied his energy to them, since they basically froze.

The gate went blank, and the pathway was clear. Now, he only had ten seconds to get everyone through afore the energy gate restarted. And Matt couldn't find any objects large enough to be detected by it. The Anomaly moved them as fast as he could across the gate, pushing them through it. They slowed down as the lightning left them and was absorbed back into his limbs. Thankfully, the gateway did not turn them to cough-inducing dust.

Once Matt realised there was a mounting headache rippling through his brain, he jumped through the pathway at the eighth of his seconds, and moments before the accurate turn of a real nanosecond. He landed on the ground with a harsh thump, but jumped off the ground and sapped most of the kinetic energy off his allies so that they wouldn't be injured when they hit the ground.

Time resumed normal passage, and there was another vociferous, painful-sounding thud from the Vault Hunters when they landed on the ground. The energy gate returned to its passive blue, without having detected any further intruders. There were no sirens, no warning announcements, just complete silence. Hopefully to Gemini's chagrin, they'd gotten through Lima Base One's defences and were quickly on their way to rescuing Gaige.

The Vault Hunters had gotten through.

* * *

 **And cut.**

 **Going into detail on what it felt like for Matt before, during and after he activated his powers was actually quite fun. Difficult, though. It's not easy coming up with different things to talk about, as well as describing the scenery as it slows down. I have only really described once, very briefly, in Chapter One (or Two, I can't remember) so I felt like properly illustrating how it felt too would be interesting. Honestly, it really** ** _is_** **ineffable, mainly because I find it difficult** ** _actually_** **defining the whole thing.**

 **If you're thinking "wait, Elpis doesn't have an atmosphere, there are only artificial bubbles" then let's just say Gemini's been doing some tinkering to the planet. It hasn't been terraformed, it's just gained significantly more Oxygen (and some other elements) so it's easier to breathe in. LB1, however, has its own bubbles which filter out Carbon Dioxide and various other harmful gases so there's only a small fraction of them - just enough as is required.**

 **The energy gate was also deliberately reminiscent of the barrier that blocked the path to the Bunker in Borderlands 2, whereupon it would disintegrate any non-Hyperion. So, well done if you picked up on that.**

 **To tease, I suppose, the next chapter will be named after one of Krieg's skills. It's one that I think will fit the chapter quite well, metaphorically and literally referring to what goes on in it, and also because I plan for Krieg's proper reintroduction to the Vault Hunters to be in said chapter.**

 **Also, a bee-ant doesn't exist in Borderlands, I just made it up. I think a bee-ant is a cool idea. It doesn't die when it stings, though – which I suppose makes it more of a "wasp-ant" but I thought bee-ant sounded better.**


	26. Release the Beast

**Welcome back! This chapter took a while to write, because it's really long. It's longer than** ** _Forbearance_** **(Ch15), which means that this one is now officially the longest chapter out of all of them. As the story continues, Krieg and the others will finally coincide and allow them to gain more knowledge on Gemini. It's a slow way into them crossing paths, but it will happen, I can guarantee that.**

 **There's also a few things we get to find out in this chapter, mainly some of my own lore about Gemini. Yes, there'll be some exposition in this chapter, once again taking the form of menacingly long paragraphs. Trust me, though, if you want to find out more about Gemini, I suggest you read them. You don't have to, though. I don't control you.**

 **As said before, this chapter is named after a Krieg skill. And it fits almost perfectly.**

 **Anyways…**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Six: Release the Beast**

* * *

Commander Sharp observed the live footage from one of the hidden cameras about LB1, and could easily see the Vault Hunters as they landed on the grey dust. Of course, the battalion leader was immediately aware that Matt had arrived, and that he would be able to get past the energy gate.

Sharp rewound the footage on his holographic ECHO panel, and slowed it down. He could not really see what happened properly, but the man could deduce it. Between 21:32:02:15 and 21:32:02:16, there was a red flash right after the gate activated. **(A/N: Hour, minute, second, millisecond (21h, 32m, 2s, 15ms); Time taken from Intergalactic Zero-Time Centre (IZTC).)** In the next millisecond, the Crimson Raider Vault Hunters were on the other side of the gateway. Once the commander slowed it to as much as possible, he could see something dash through it and land on the other side. Mr Rye, obviously.

 _This_ was interesting. The young man was evidently much faster than he had been before, as though he had unlocked some as yet undiscovered third tier of his Chronokinesis. Usually, while he was faster than a millisecond, you could see, fairly clearly, what the Vault Hunter was doing as he was slow enough for it to be perceived when the footage itself was slowed down enough to accommodate. Now, Sharp could not.

'Sir?'

He looked up.

Duke Minoosh, the Fable.

'Mr Minoosh. Is there something you wanted?' The commander asked.

'I was wondering when you were going to send us on our next assignment,' Duke replied. 'Arcturus is getting restless and Violet's becoming seriously annoying now, begging for someone to hurt.'

'I was planning on sending you on a full assault mission soon,' Sharp revealed. 'Such a commission will be very intensive.'

'Makes sense,' the Fable approved, scratching the back of his hair casually. 'Full assaults alone require effort to win. Just using Vault Hunters? Accomplishing that would be no easy task, I assure you.'

'I know.'

'You're not exactly giving any real reassurance here, sir,' he jokingly complained, trying to break the tension.

' _Please,'_ his superior almost scolded. 'I wouldn't be sending you on such a mission if I didn't have the utmost faith that you would succeed.' Duke smiled, and nodded. 'I'll brief you on its details when the time comes.'

After a few seconds of idly standing there, the Fable finally plucked up the courage to query, 'So when are you planning on sending us on this mission?'

'Once I've dealt with _this_ , Mr Minoosh.' James Sharp pointed at the holographic projection he was looking at, prompting the Vault Hunter in front of him to walk over to see what he was looking at. His eyes widened when he saw Matt, Aurora, and company having successfully infiltrated the base.

'Sir! How long ago was this?!' He demanded worriedly.

'It's live,' the Gemini regimen leader disclosed, revelling in the panic written over Duke's face.

'I-I'll send guards right away!'

'No. No you won't.'

The Fable looked at him in utter bewilderment.

'Matt's walking right into a trap,' the commander reminded him. 'Let him think he's got this in the bag, so he lets his guard down. _That's_ when we strike.'

'If you say so, sir. But what if they get caught earlier than we intend?'

'They won't. They're not stupid.' Mr Minoosh nodded compliantly with that, and waited for his superior to dismiss him. 'You may go.'

As Duke left, another person came in. Three. Sharp frowned.

'Three? What're you doing here?' He probed, narrowing his eyes in an analysing way. 'I thought you were supposed to be with Gaige, integrating your…ahem… _back-up plan?'_

'It appears I don't need to use slag experimentation, sir,' Three informed him in disbelief, looking genuinely surprised for the first time in probably forever, breaking her poker face. 'Gaige has…I think she's just…snapped.'

'What do you mean, "snapped"?' James demanded.

'I think it's best if you see for yourself.' At that response, the commander stood up from his chair and indicated for her to lead the way. She did. And he followed behind.

Walking around in the halls, it was almost surreal for Sharp to imagine that, on the opposite side of the complex, was a set of opposing Vault Hunters that were breaking in at this moment. Among them being two former Gemini employees. It'd been a long while since he'd even been in the same room as Matt Rye, someone he used to be quite fond of, so the fact that he was now here – breaking into a place he used to work in, no less – was hard for him to properly scope.

Especially since most of the people in Lima Base One did not know that they were also in the same complex as a rogue agent, it was peaceful and appeared to be as though just an ordinary day at the office. (Or in this case, rather, prison.) Even if Matt was able to rescue Gaige, he'd never have time to get every single prisoner out, mainly because there wouldn't be enough space on his two jump-ships. So Lima Base One could recover. Actually, it would be ironic if he tried, since most of the prisoners on LB1 had been put there by Mr Rye himself.

However, Sharp wasn't planning on letting Gaige get out, because he needed her as a bargaining chip. If there was one sole thing that the corporation required to get their plans off the ground, it was the Vault. The Vault had unknown technologies, unspoken knowledge, and a form of energy they could potentially harness. And they needed the Anomaly to gain access to it. Which meant, by extension, they would need his girlfriend to get what they wanted.

Sure Mr Rye was and would still be pissed, but it was a means to an end. It did slightly scare him, though, what his former ally might do to the commander once he found him. That sent chills down his spine.

Sharp wished he could simply go to an already-vanquished Vault and take what was there – but he could not. Any technology would've been taken already, and the energy signatures faded once the Vault was opened, so all the previous Vaults' stored energy that was trapped within had dissipated and could no longer be harnessed.

Commander Sharp was entirely focussed on hunting this new Vault – despite being very inexperienced with them and not even knowing if this new Vault would be difficult to take on – and would do whatever it took to achieve that goal. Director McCain would likely be happy once he did what he was stationed to do. Hell, maybe even a promotion was on the table. He certainly wanted a promotion, since he'd been Gemini's taskforce leader for several years now, having become it shortly proceeding its inception. Not that most people would even know that.

Gemini was a company that always worked in the shadows, which was why no one about the galaxy had really ever heard of it. They'd existed for over a decade, but had finally gained some semblance of power about 5 years ago, when the Vaults finally came into play. Hyperion no doubt had boosted their power even further the past year, due to Eridium having made them trillions. Before Eridium, not many people knew of Hyperion, either. More than Gemini, though, which Handsome Jack never failed to rub in.

The corporation only became interested in Vaults following the Vault of the Destroyer, but didn't find the Vault on Pandora since they assumed it tended to be only one per planet. Hyperion opted not to tell them about the Vault of the Warrior, at Jack's request, because the man did not want them attempting to usurp the power he desperately wanted. Samael McCain was _not_ happy when he found that out. He _was_ happy, overjoyed, in fact, when his organisation successfully found another Vault on Pandora – _before_ Hyperion did, no less.

And with Handsome Jack out the picture, Hyperion had no reason to take on the Vault. The acting CEO had no interest in them, and only elected to stay on Pandora so they could maintain power and aid Gemini in enacting their influence over both the planet and its moon. Not to mention it would cost billions to move Helios away from Elpis, and to get it out of its geostationary orbit around the moon, too. Even for Hyperion, a hundreds of trillions dollar company, that was too steep of a price for it to be worth it, when the other choice would be to leave it there. And the price for that was zero.

Three stopped walking as they arrived at the door. She slid her keycard through the slot, and the access panel turned static green. The woman pushed open the door, revealing the very same white room as before, with Gaige still tied down on the operating table, just as before.

Commander Sharp cautiously approached the girl, trying to discern what was wrong with her, which warranted his attention. This girl was definitely not OK anymore. She didn't even look like there was much of a soul left in her, lacking any real expression or any light in her eyes. It was a little similar to when she'd zoned out before, except even worse.

Worst of all, the Mechromancer was muttering and whispering unintelligibly to herself. She looked almost vegetated, or sedated, and unable even to focus on anything. Gaige appeared that she wasn't aware of her surroundings; her eyes weren't centring on anything in particular and were just…staring…off into space.

He took another step forward, and Three tensed.

'Sir! Be careful!' She warned, but her commander ignored her.

'Gaige…?' James quietly called, jerking his head forward, attempting to hear any remnant of a response from the lost girl in front of him. He put a hand on her shoulder, and Gaige's eyes shot towards him, but displayed no recognition of the man before her. Normally, the Mechromancer would look enraged just by seeing him and then would've recoiled at his touch.

She continued staring at him, as though the girl was actually going to say something to him. However, the Vault Hunter continued muttering while maintaining eye contact with him, until he let go off her shoulder. The commander stepped back, and folded his arms conclusively, breathing a short sigh.

'What the hell happened?' Sharp asked. He wished that he'd maintained nonstop surveillance over the live footage. If the commander had, maybe he would know. And possibly could've taken action earlier as well.

'I'm not certain, sir,' Three confessed. 'When I came back she started convulsing and shuddering, which stopped when I gave her a sedative. When she woke up, she was just…like this.'

'Any idea what she's mumbling about?' Her superior asked her, leaning in to try and figure it out for himself.

'The best I can get is something about a forest and a river,' the third in command disclosed. 'The rest of it I couldn't decipher.'

'Well, it seems we've succeeded.' Sharp's eyes widened in incredulity at his realisation, not quite believing his own words. His third in command returned the look, albeit with less intensity.

'So what do we do with her now?' She asked him, although her tone sounded uninterested. The commander looked at her.

 _Is that…displeasure? Almost…disappointment? Three seems somewhat UPSET that Gaige has snapped? Well, she was very impressed with the girl's mental resistance against the perhexiline…but she was also frustrated. I guess her opinion's changed._

'Send her back to her cell.' James stepped out of the room, and called for two guards' attention. They nodded at his request, and Three injected a strong sedative to knock what was left of Gaige out. The Mechromancer's neck slumped, and her outward muscles stopped moving, making it easier for her to move her.

The Gemini guards forcibly and uncaringly dragged the Vault Hunter off the operating table, and carried her by her weakened arms. Her feet dragged across the floor as her head lolled around, drool leaking lightly out of her mouth. Not that anyone really cared.

Moments later, the Mechromancer was thrown into her dark prison cell, Prison Cell #240, and tied down on the chair. Three watched avidly at the girl whose will was apparently unbreakable, wondering just what happened while they were gone to cause this. There was not much time to think about it, however, as the door was quickly slammed shut, with the viewing panel harshly slid across and closed, revealing, once again, the name "Gaige" in unsurprisingly non-mercurial gold.

Three did not miss, however, the unmistakably feral growl emitting from the door to the right of Gaige's, housing Test Subject #239. Krieg was getting animalistic again, likely because he'd realized that the Mechromancer was being "mistreated" again. Pretty soon, Three would have to sedate Krieg, too. Which was getting annoying. Having to dispose of him so often was wasting her time, and Sharp had not authorised her to terminate the prisoner with extreme prejudice, or any for that matter, so Three was just going to have to suffer the evidently insane man's rants.

Enough of nipple salads, it was time to get down to business.

* * *

The premises of Lima Base One remained silent. As it should be. If Matt and his team didn't want to get caught, that is. They skulked around the back of the main building of LB1, Lima Central, where the primary POWs and test subjects were kept.

Using a bit of teamwork, they were able to climb to the very top guard tower. They took out the Gemini guard stationed there, quietly, at the aid of Zer0. Above here, no one would notice that it'd been hijacked, given them ample time to go over their plan.

'Right then,' Lilith addressed, setting her ECHO down on the table in the middle of the room, using it as a holographic projector. It displayed the 3D schematics of Lima Base One, according to Matt and Aurora's data. 'This is what we've got of this base.'

'I used to work here as a prison warden,' the Revolverslinger revealed. 'So trust me, it's accurate.'

'And we are located… _here?'_ Axton guessed, pointing the tallest guard tower on what clearly resembled Lima Central. Aurora nodded, as Lilith adjusted it to add a red dot on the hologram.

'Gaige's ECHO is here,' Matt detected, pointing somewhere else on the design, in some sort of closet. 'That's where they store prisoner equipment. So there's no use tracking her to her ECHO. However, you'll find her in one of these cells.' The Anomaly directed them towards a point on the hologram that displayed a hallway with rooms stationed on either sides of it, opposite and in line with each other.

'Last time I checked, the latest number of cells used was about 230-ish,' Aurora added.

'So she'll be in 231 onwards,' Mordecai surmised. 'Seems easy enough.'

'There's still the major problem of how we're going to actually get her out without being noticed,' Maya reminded them.

'We agreed that using Matt's spare C-Digistructor to become a Deceptor so he could go invisible,' Lilith said.

'Gaige would be exposed / Everyone would see her out / Of her prison cell,' Zer0 informed them, showing a displeased emoticon on his visor.

'Exactly,' Maya added.

Lilith didn't seem too worried or concerned. 'Looks like we're just gonna have to cause a distraction, of some sort. In the confusion, we might be able to smuggle Gaige out.'

'I don't think it'd be a good idea to just reveal ourselves,' Axton advised, ribbing his chin. 'We'd have half of Gemini's army on our asses in seconds.'

'More to kill!' Salvador the Gunzerker cheered, although was immediately silenced by his fellow Vault Hunters, so as to not attract the attention other the entire army that the Commando just recommended they don't bother.

'Well, then it's sorted,' the Anomaly supposed, taking out his C-Digistructor and messing around with the dials, switches and buttons. After a while, he was able to assume the form of a Deceptor.

'All charged up?' Aurora teased.

' _Yes,'_ Matt replied, turning off the voice mod, not even needing to look at his C-Digistructor to know it was at full charge.

'Good luck, compañero,' Salvador wished, nodding at him acceptingly.

'You got this, man,' Axton encouraged, putting a hand on his disguised shoulder.

'Well, I am going to at least try, Ax,' the Anomaly confirmed, as they both took the others hand and did a hug that involved them giving the other a friendly smack on the back.

'You're certainly not the kind to give up,' Aurora complimented, hugging him whilst wearing a warm smile.

'Slabs don't give up,' Brick recited from his Slab tabloid of rules off the top of his head.

'You know I'm not a slab, right?' Matt once again mentioned. The brute was slightly nervous for a moment, but found a work-around, of sorts.

'That's not the point, _slab,'_ he preached, warranting a loud sigh from his friend.

 _Whatever then,_ Matt gave up. _Each to their own._

The Vault Hunter went invisible, and climbed down the side of the guard tower. He landed on the front of the base, where several Gemini employees were walking to and from Lima Central. Guards stood by the entrance, paying observant attention to anyone who attempted to enter the facility.

There was a fountain spewing out water nearby in the central plaza, complete with benches and a tiled pattern across the ground. Odd thing to find in a base primarily used to house prisoners. He looked up at the transparent but reflective dome that allowed for gravity to take effect within the localised area. A lot of effort was gone through to make Lima Base One look pleasant, when that was exactly what it was not.

He could see off in the distance the training camp and practice fields, complete with their own fair share of Gemini soldiers. Off duty, mostly. The base was unexpectedly packed with people in them, which almost scared Matt. LB1 was also teeming with Gemini Loader bots, although only a fraction of them were actually patrolling the area. All of the others were engaging in constructive actions, such moving heavy objects, manning machines, supervising training programs and various other things.

Matt remained carefully out of the way of the Gemini workers, remembering how badly the last time he went on this kind of mission when someone almost bumped into a worker. To be fair, that person _was_ pushed, but still, it had been dangerous.

He stepped inside Lima Central, searching around for the prison cells. The Anomaly didn't know his way around here like Aurora did, and the Vault Hunter could not merely ask on the ECHO, since the place was so crowded that at least someone would hear him. And then he'd be caught in a matter of moments. And that would be a bit of a complication, since his friends would then have to rescue two people.

Perhaps he could sneak off to a more secluded area to ECHO the others. They could talk to them, but he could not respond.

'OK, Matty, I'm just gonna assume you can hear me, since you can't respond,' Aurora said over the comms. 'I'm afraid the entrance is quite a distance from the 200 – 299 section of the prison, so you're going to have to sneak around for a while.'

'Do yourself a favour and don't get caught,' Lilith advised, lying back in her seat atop the guard tower. Matt ignored the nonchalant comment and continued wandering through the complex.

'Take your next right.'

He saw a doorway leading into a corridor on his right, looking exceedingly boring amongst the sleek metal design of the entire building. The floor had an almost Gemini-patented crosshatching design, which had bronze-like, glitter effect to it that dulled its reflectivity. The light caught by it was so minute in lux intensity that it actually wouldn't get in your eyes – thankfully, he supposed – but also aided in making the place seem boring.

But why would Lima Base One be about looks?

The hallway the Revolverslinger directed him to had no sign in sight that might've given an ounce of a clue where it lead, which was not helpful but was probably so intruders such as himself could not find it before being caught – yet this wasn't too great for visitors. If it even got any guests, that is.

Believing in his best friend's judgement and memory, Matt took the turn and avoided the many people walking through it. There did not seem to be any clear direction as to where it was, because of how busy it was, so the Anomaly was going to have to listen carefully to Aurora's instructions.

Seeing an isolated corner near the toilets, the Vault Hunter slid out of the crowd. The noise lowered, helpfully, giving him enough space to talk.

'This hallway is _packed,_ 'Ora,' he whispered. 'How am I supposed to get around here?'

' _Relax,_ you're doing _fine._ If all else fails, just use your Chronokinesis.'

'I think they'd notice if there was sudden increase in unidentifiable energy, 'Ora.'

'Stop worrying, OK? It's gonna be fine.'

'It's usually _me_ telling _you_ that.'

'Things change. Now pick up your pace, there's still a decent distance to go.'

'You'd better be right.'

'When am I not?'

Matt deemed it pointless to argue against her obviously incorrect statement, and turned down the volume on his ECHOear. Trying to argue with Aurora was like having a dispute with a brick wall. He might as well have just accepted it rather than risk getting caught by even as much as whispering. If someone heard him, they'd be very suspicious as to who he might be talking to.

The Anomaly stepped out of the corner and back into the swarm of people, narrowly missing a collision with a passer-by. He could feel his heart rate elevating, and perspiration sliding down the side of his face. However, Matt could not get overwhelmed with pressure, because then the Vault Hunter would certainly make a mistake with dire consequences. That would not be conducive if they actually wanted to succeed.

Matt knew this mission would be risky for that reason – and others – but he accepted it because his safety was not as important right now as Gaige's. The whole point of this mission was to save her, so if they could not even do that, then it was definitely not going to be wonderful to his confidence or to his ability to hold back and exhibit mercy, both of which were paramount.

'Containment's getting out of control,' commented someone in front of him, locked in conversation with the person directly adjacent to them.

'I think Commander Sharp's bitten off more than he can chew, personally,' agreed the person beside him. 'D'ya hear what they said about 239? They claimed his psychosis was "under control."'

'"Under control" my ass!' the other employee sneered, surprising her with his uncouth behaviour. 'Apparently he almost broke his restraints.'

'I heard about that.' She nodded.

'Better than the latest prisoner, though.'

The Vault Hunter's ears perked up at that remark.

'Tell me about it. I think even Three's starting to get annoyed with her noncompliance.'

Matt smiled a little at that. He figured that Gaige wasn't just going to give in, but now his faith in her had been confirmed. Cautiously, the Anomaly leant in closer to pick up more details of the situation.

'They tried everything and it didn't work,' the female guard replied disgruntledly, lowering her gun to down by her side and rubbing her forehead.

'Even the perhexiline?!' The employee exclaimed in disbelief. Matt frowned.

What's perhexiline?

 _Judging by the employee's response, it doesn't sound good._ The Anomaly surmised. _Maybe some sort of chemical…? God, what did they subject Gaige to?!_

' _Even_ the perhexiline,' the guard confirmed. 'Three shots, high toxicity, medium dosage. Her mental state hardly even wavered slightly.' The employee's eyes widened almost comically at her statement.

 _It's a drug?! What does it do?! Must be powerful, going by the reaction this employee just had. Three shots alone, I'm guessing, must be enough to make you go insane. Bastards._

'Who is this girl, anyway?' He enquired.

'Not sure,' the woman admitted. 'The commander's being suspiciously secretive about it. All he's said so far that her name's Gaige, and she's an affiliate of the Crimson Raiders. Nothing more than that.'

'So she's anti-Hyperion, then?'

'Presumably, yes.'

'No wonder Sharp was so adamant to capture her.'

At this point, Matt was done listening to their now pointless conversation. It did not seem like any important information was going to come up, as the conversation was very clearly edging away from where she actually was or what they were doing to her. Instead, he wormed his around them without colliding with them.

'Just ahead, turn left and go through the double sliding doors,' Aurora directed him over the ECHO. Her telling him where to go was certainly helpful given the increasingly annoying lack of signs anywhere in this part of the facility.

As Matt approached the doors, they slid open. Luckily, there was someone right next to him who activated the automatic door, so it would not like it had opened on its own.

Stepping through, he was greeted with an intersection of four hallways, leading off to indistinct areas of Lima Central. Droves of people, guards and simple workers alike, congregated and moved in different directions, reminding Matt of the sheer size of Lima Central as a whole. However, the concentration of guards in comparison to normal workers was slowly increasing, telling Matt that he was going the right way.

But still a long way to go, though.

* * *

 _One hour later_

* * *

Zap. Zap. Zappity zap.

Being zapped was fun. It was a satisfyingly painful, providing not clarity but enjoyment. There was an incomparable interest about it, although there wasn't a reason to it.

 ** _You're getting distracted, you know._**

 _SCREW THAT! I WANT ZAP!_

 ** _Ugh…_**

The armour-clad guard in front of him pulled back his zappy stick and switched it off.

Krieg the Psycho was not too happy about that. He shook his chains violently, growling ever so lightly as to show evident animosity. The gunman guard guy flinched, clearly afraid, and took his zappy stick out again. As a reflex, he electrocuted him, probably hoping it would silence him – like when you see a fly and you instantly try to swat it.

Krieg relaxed in acceptance of the agony it caused, actually enjoying it. Another wave of pleasurable pain arrived, and the Psycho shook slightly but settled down and sighed happily through his respirator mask.

That all stopped when he heard coughing and sputtering next door. Coming from Gaige. Room No.240. Krieg immediately froze when he recognised who it was. The young Mechrogirl was not equipped to go through such torture like him. Mainly because she wasn't completely bonkers. Like himself.

 ** _You see? While you revel in pain, an undeserving one experiences torture._**

 _I'M GONNA MAKE A MEAT BICYCLE OUT OF 'EM. MINCE MEAT!_

 ** _That's more like it._**

Krieg was not unfamiliar with military leaders, considering Roland. He was a bit uptight and basically a walking stereotype of army generals, but the man was also respectable and somehow managed to see the Psycho as a comrade rather than insane. The pretty woman – Maya, was it? – was the only other person to do the same.

Meanwhile, Mr Sharp Dick was a lot less reasonable than Roland and also a lot meaner. And when Krieg, who is _literally_ a psycho, calls someone out on being unreasonable, you know that you're really in the shitter with your behaviour. Krieg didn't kill or even mistreat the undeserving. Sharp Dick _did_ kill the undeserving. And grossly maltreated them.

A good few slashes and mashes to the head might set his morals in place and teach him a lesson. Especially since the man glaringly needed it.

Unfortunately, Third and Fourth had taken his massive buzzaxe from him and put it away in some stash. Third clearly didn't like the weapon, and called it "uncivilised" - which he did not appreciate one bit. The Psycho was not happy that people would insult his lovely masher weapon like that.

That Third woman was not very nice at all. She had all of those "brain scanning" abilities that she kept using on him. The woman could definitely tell he had two voices in his head, and was intrigued by his split personalities. She was a really mean psychologist.

Now that he thought about it, Krieg considered that he might be butchering her name when he said "Third" but supposed it was just an another thing added to the extensive list of things he's butchered. Just below "his title as a Vault Hunter" and "numerous Gemini guards when they came to 'collect' him" – among other things.

The guard in front of him noticed that the Psycho had gone unnervingly still, and very fearfully stepped away from him. Clearly, he was afraid Krieg was going to try something, and was for too scared to use the zappy stick to quell his fright.

Krieg growled doggedly as the man stepped away, unnerving the guard but didn't stop his movement. As the distance between them increased, the ex-Vault Hunter snarled even louder, prompting the guard to step closer to alleviate the animosity. The further the man got, the less Krieg growled, until he was right next to the Psycho, close enough perhaps to feel his breaths beneath the respirator mask.

With all his might and tenacity, Krieg jolted his head towards the guard, smashing him in the head and rendering him unconscious. Now with a body lying on the ground sleepily in front of him, the Psycho was able to use his feet to pickpocket the guard and steal his keys. For once, the insane ex-Vault Hunter had actually shown some ingenuity, although, in hindsight, his reaction could've just made him seen territorial, and thus even more primal.

It took a few minutes for him to manage to unbolt the locks on his feet. He had to turn the key around with his toes so it would be in line with it, and then carefully insert it into the lock and twist his toe uncomfortably. After that was done, Krieg had to repeat the process. Although, it was easier using the one foot he had free to do it.

Even more awkwardly, the Psycho then had to pass the key from his foot to his hand, worm his hand around in the chains, and unlock it. This took at least thirty seconds longer than he perhaps would've wanted. Finally, Krieg could easily unchain the final lock on his hand with three out of four of his limbs free, taking only a couple seconds.

Now Krieg the Psycho had escaped his chains. Not something you'd expect, consider he wasn't supposed to think clearly.

 ** _You need to be careful about this. If you try and save Gaige now, you'll certainly get noticed. It may be after hours now, but there're still going to be quite a few people around. Wait until you have more weapons and better timing._**

He was right. The general job hours had ended, so, for now, there would only be the handful of night-shift guards around. Krieg's sector was relatively new, with only forty inmates, so they would likely be less focussed on this area than others, where one-hundred of them would be.

 _UNDERSTOOD! WALK ME THROUGH THIS! NIPPLE SALADS!_

 ** _OK. Now carefully slide the panel across so you can get a good view of what we're dealing with. Not too much, however, because you don't want people to notice._**

Krieg agreed, and subtly moved it across, shuddering at even the slightest of sounds being made. Avoiding any idle inane mutterings he often made, the Psycho looked out into the corridor to see a guard one on end. He was pacing up and down the corridor, but thankfully did not notice Krieg opening the panel. Although, he was alarmingly close and walking towards him, so the Psycho shut it and only left a small slit to see out through.

 ** _Alright, good. I saw a janitorial closet of some sort down by the right end of the corridor. What I want you do is, when the guard walks by, quietly open the door, step out and close it again. Then, as silently as possible, make your way over the closet and go in. I'll tell you what to do from there._**

While he was insane, even Krieg knew that making little to no noise in that endeavour would be hard. He was a hulking mass of flesh, so that would certainly be loud on the metal floor. Worth a try, though.

Once the ex-Vault Hunter noticed the slit of light on his panel go black for a second, he slid open the panel to see the guard walking away from his cell, down by the left end of the hallway. Using the keychain he'd retrieved from the guard earlier, Krieg unlocked the door ever so quietly and prudently, and practically, tip-toed out, closing the door behind him. Fortuitously, the cell door must've been oiled recently as it did not make any creaks when the Psycho opened it.

With the guard still walking down the other end, Krieg was free to walk over to the closet. He silently tried to open it, but realised it needed a key, and was glad he took the keychain. Fumbling through the keys, the ex-Vault Hunter got very worried that the patroller would turn around at any moment and notice his escape attempt. Krieg had no idea how he had gotten so lucky with the keys earlier, since that auspiciousness was failing him now.

Lo and behold, the Psycho successfully chose the right one after numerous attempts, and opened the door. He shut it behind him, quietly, but quickly enough to relieve any stress.

Looking around, Krieg could see it was not a janitor's closet. It was a storage room. There was a cabinet to his right with multiple names on them, along with numbers varying from 200 to 240 – names and designations of prisoners. This was where their belongings were being held.

 ** _Interesting. Right, now look for '239' and collect what's ours._**

Deciding not to argue that technically, they were _his_ , the ex-Vault Hunter did what he said. Finding 239 rather easily – it was where "Krieg" was eloquently stuck on below – he slid open the tray, and was surprised by its capacity. Rummaging through, the Psycho took out his ECHO and his trusty buzzaxe before closing it again. His ECHO's battery had been damaged, but his slasher masher was perfectly intact.

Krieg then saw 240, where "Gaige" was stuck on, and decided to open it. Inside it was her ECHO – which immediately identified the incorrect user – and two batteries, which the other voice presumed was for her shiny arm. He took both and put them in his back pockets, along with his own ECHO.

He heard a voice outside and realised that the guard was walking away from the room, from right to left, at this moment and Krieg took the chance to run out – somewhat quietly – to the other end and out of his sight.

 ** _That was a dangerous move. But it paid off. For now, you need to keep moving. Someone could notice you easily, given your stature._**

 _I'LL SMASH THEIR HEADS IN!_

 ** _If they see you, knock them out before they can radio anyone else about your escape attempt._**

Krieg crept almost aimlessly around Lima Central, only being told where to go from his other voice every so often. There weren't any signs that directed them where to go, but it seemed the other voice had clarity enough to figure it out.

Further and further to the main cortex they were, the fewer and fewer people were around. Granted it was hard to avoid the guards, and there was still a large distance between him and the entrance, but the thought of escape after months in this hellhole filled the Psycho was hope.

So he was left bewildered when he collided with thin air and landed on the ground with a thud after going around a sharp corner. The sound was ringing in his ears, but it did not seem to have alerted any guards. And the cameras were strangely disabled.

 ** _What the hell just happened?_**

Krieg got up and searched his surroundings for an idea where that collision came from.

'WHO'S THERE?' The ex-Vault Hunter almost yelled, although he definitely sounded agitated.

 _'_ _Shush,'_ said a voice, rather softly. The Psycho's head immediately shot towards where he heard it.

'ARE YOU REAL?' He nonchalantly asked, not unfamiliar with imaginary things, or the idea that his senses and mind were playing tricks on him.

In front him, a man appeared, fading into view. It was a Gemini Deceptor. An invisi-guy. Or at least it was, for a second, before the holographic image changed into that of a brown-haired individual wearing a midnight coat, complete with padding, a red shirt underneath, with armour cover some of it, and army-style black trousers that had even _more_ protective armour over it. His eyes were brown mixed with gold, and the hand he was holding out in front of the Psycho looked heavily marred and lacerated; a hint of previous battles. **(A.N: I guess I never mentioned his eye colour before, huh?)**

'Are you a prisoner?' The strange man asked him quietly. 'Because you don't look like a Gemini employee.'

Hesitant, Krieg nodded.

 _WHAT DO WE DO?_

 ** _He hasn't tried to hurt or re-contain us, so I guess we should listen to what he has to say…?_**

'Can you tell me what prison number you are?' The guy whispered softly, as to not anger him.

'2…3…9,' Krieg uttered. The stranger nodded.

'Listen, I'm with a group of people trying to save this prisoner. Do you happen to know where someone called "Gaige" is?'

The Psycho stepped back in shock.

 ** _This guy knows Gaige? Wait, does mean that he's with the Crimson Raiders?! If he was Hyperion, then he certainly wouldn't be trying to rescue her. He must be a Vault Hunter!_**

Krieg nodded, and decidedly began walking back the direction he came. The presumed Vault Hunter took this as a yes and caught up with him.

'Vault…Hunter…' The Psycho said to him.

'"Vault Hunter"?' He questioned. 'Erm, well, yes, I am a Vault Hunter. You know of them?' Again, the ex-Vault Hunter nodded but didn't say much else. 'I'm with the Crimson Raiders, and group of other Vault Hunters who came here to rescue Gaige after she was kidnapped.'

As a prisoner, Test Subject #239, Krieg was well aware of Gaige's kidnapping. Guards always talked about it, which meant it was easy to eavesdrop. Even more so, when they believed you'd being disposed of by a "strong" sedative. Frequently, he'd lash out when he heard what they were doing to her, which prompted use of said sedative to "calm him down" – which really meant to shut him up.

'My name's Matt by the way,' Matt told him friendlily. 'Matt Rye. Although, my Vault Hunter title is the Anomaly.'

 ** _Catchy._**

'Mechro…mancer…' Krieg remembered.

'Yes, that's Gaige's title, since she's a Vault Hunter too. Strange. I would've thought her status as a Vault Hunter would be kept under wraps since Gemini wants everyone thinking they "revolutionised" Vault Hunters.'

 ** _This Matt guy is pretty smart. That's not something most people would figure out at the drop of a hat. He seems to know a few things about this "Gemini" corporation. Good thing he's on our side._**

'I'm sorry, I didn't ask for your name,' the Anomaly apologised.

For a moment, the Psycho faltered.

 ** _You've been whining about going back to the Crimson Raiders ever since you had little dispute all those months ago. You might as well just tell him, since he has probably heard of you._**

'It's…Krieg,' Krieg informed him, and watched as Matt's eyes widened.

'Krieg as in, Krieg the Psycho?!'

 ** _Yeah, I guess it's safe to say he's heard of you._**

* * *

 **And Matt and Krieg meet! A good cliff-hanger, and I can never resist one. Gotta say, it was pretty fun writing from Krieg's perspective. I'm not too good at it, since I haven't played much as Krieg (he's melee-oriented, I'm not) but it was nice nonetheless. I like using his second, saner, voice as the way in which Krieg gets out of there alive. If he'd tried without any assistance, the Psycho would likely try to just kill any enemy he sees and end up dead.**

 **Also, I guess I didn't go into full detail, but when Aurora was prison warden, she worked at Lima Base One (among others) in Lima Central. That's, of course, why she knows her way around so well. Matt himself has never been in Lima Central, but he _has_ worked in Lima Base One a few times. Just not in that specific building. Sharp always went to him rather than the other way around.**

 **The exposition on Gemini can mostly be summed up in that the corporation has been around for way longer than it first seemed. They've worked with Hyperion longer than one would've assumed, and quite possibly outdate them.**

 **Finally, oh noes, Gaige has gone insane! Whatever will Matt do? Well, I guess you'll have to find out when I finish writing the next chapter. Whenever that'll be. Review! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha…I'm not asking for reviews,** ** _no!_**

* * *

 **Duke Minoosh: "The Fable"**

 **It took me _ages_ to finally settle on this one. It's truly about as decent as I could get it. It has almost _nothing_ to do with guns, which I like, and it isn't so obvious why it fits him. It's to do with his skill, and mentor-like nature, that makes him seem like a living fable walking. Yeah, I like it, and I hope you do to. Although, it's not like I'm gonna be _using_ it that often. Only when he shows up and I want to switch between names and pronouns. Yeah.**


	27. Gemini

**Sorry about the long wait, but I was gearing up for the beginning of the school year, which is in a week. After that cliff-hanger, I suppose you might be anxious to see how this new chapter would play out. However, I don't expect you to be since I don't actually know what your reactions are.**

 **We'll finally get a little more exposition on how Krieg ended up in the clutches of the Gemini Corporation to begin with, too.**

 **And after TEN chapters, and over 250 pages [A5], Matt will be reunited with Gaige. This plot thread is so long and isn't even finished yet. One or two more chapters and it will. That's a promise.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Seven: Gemini**

* * *

Matt stared at the hulking mass beside him in bewilderment. This was Krieg?! He looked so…awesome! Like a literal block of concrete!

'Guys! You're not going to believe this!'

'Matt,' Axton addressed, being the only one on comms apart from Aurora now that everyone else had pretty much gone to sleep over the past hour. 'In our line of work, that line is thrown so often you'd have to tell us Sal is wearing a pink tutu to surprise us. And a top with a unicorn' – Pandoracorn – 'on it.' **(A/N: My favourite skin…)**

'I found Krieg!' Axton's eyes widened, actually surprised at the statement.

'Who?' Aurora asked, but was swiftly drowned by Axton's fervent response.

'You what?!' He exclaimed in disbelief. 'Big, muscly, looks like he's about to go on a rampage?'

'Yes!' The Anomaly persisted over the ECHO. Axton immediately turned around, got up, and ran over to the sleeping Maya.

'Maya!' He shook her awake, and she got very visibly annoyed.

'Why the hell you gotta wake me up?! I was really tired and –'

'Matt found Krieg.' The Siren's eyes widened in realisation, no longer bothered that her nap had been interrupted or that her complaints about it had also been interrupted.

'You're absolutely sure?' Maya demanded to Matt over the ECHO.

'Certain!'

'Get him on the call!'

'Hold on…looks like his ECHO is drained. Just a minute, I'll replace with my ECHO's battery.' Matt then began taking out his ECHO device's battery, not bothered that he was rendering it useless since he still had his ECHOear. There was also the storage ECHOs that still sat unused in Crimson Raider HQ following the raid of the Gemini Armoury.

Within a few moments, Krieg's ECHO was fully functional. The Psycho activated it, and when he did, it immediately synced up to Maya's ECHO, adding him to the ECHOnet.

'Hey there, big guy,' Maya greeted warmly. Krieg's heart rate increased upon hearing the voice he hadn't heard in months.

'PRETTY LADY!' He realised, greeting her back.

'I can see why you didn't come back to us sooner,' she noted. 'Gemini got to you first.'

'GEMINI GAVE ME ZAPPY!'

'He knows where Gaige is being held; he's bringing me to her,' Matt elucidated. Krieg nodded in somewhat understanding of what he just said, and continued walking.

'That's perfect!' Axton, Maya and Aurora all chimed in unison.

Walking back through Lima Central, Krieg was surprisingly quiet. Gaige had told Matt that the Psycho was just that, a psycho, and such, tended to spout random-ass nonsense at every turn. Whatever the then-Vault Hunter meant to say was lost in translation, and he always seemed to have something to say. Until now, apparently. Even when being reunited with his friends, he'd only said a few words.

Perceptive as usual, the Anomaly suspected that Gaige – or more accurately, Gaige's torture – was the result of this. The two were quite good friends, as she had told him, and liked to have a mess around, so it was understandable that Krieg wouldn't like it when she was subjected to intense torment. Thinking about it probably put him off speaking about it. It made sense, for once in his life.

A guard appeared around the corner, but had little time to react before Krieg whacked him over the head with his buzzaxe and knocked him out cold. Matt quickly moved the body out of sight into a nearby men's toilets section. Surprisingly, the Psycho and the Anomaly worked fairly well together, although that theory could be tested later since they'd only just met each other.

There was a choice few minutes where Matt wondered what kind of obscenities the Gemini Corporation had conformed to, in part thanks to Hyperion. There were literal torture chambers, whereupon the Anomaly found himself almost begging that the Mechromancer hadn't been subjected to. Three's storage closet was in sight, and Matt could only imagine the kind of horrific shit was stored inside there, waiting to be used on an undeserving Prisoner Of War. Gaige of all people didn't deserve to go through it, and the Anomaly didn't want to think about it too much. But he knew that the Mechromancer was at the very least alive, considering they desperately needed him: Gaige was the only way to draw him in.

Three had evidently moved to Elpis only recently, going by the imperfect sticker hanging on the door by a thread, pathetically covering the shiny plaque underneath.

Gemini didn't tend to centre their businesses on any particular planet – although Castor was their intended location – and instead built intergalactic space stations around the cosmos to focus their work. Probably, that allowed them work even more clandestinely. Primary out of all of them was Capricorn Central Galactica, or CCG, for short. It was a large interstellar station that housed most of Gemini's workforce and a good half of their military power. The CCG was where Matt moved to when he was employed following the conclusion of Darios's third civil war, and where Two, Three, and Five worked in. (Four and Six worked in Numeri 4 Command, a satellite orbiting Divaloca, before temporarily moving to Lima Base One when it was built.)

In addition, the Vault Hunter had met Two and Three there, but never approached Five. Three didn't think much of him, apart from his interesting ability that she often wanted to investigate. However, its true nature was overlooked, and was eclipsed by the fact that Matt did not like the woman or her prying eyes. Two hardly expressed anything other than fierce loyalty to his superior, following any order set out for him. Both of them were largely unlikeable and Commander Sharp only really kept them around because of their usefulness.

Which was also the reason why they relocated to LB1 as swiftly as they did.

Curiously, Lima Base One was built under the guise of a _Hyperion_ base, as to not draw attention from any suspecting Elpisians. Yet another thing that Hyperion had aided their sister company in doing, although it was properly for a price. (If they didn't have enough money already.)

Krieg's section was likely built very quickly following the capture of the 200th prisoner, but it remained to be seen how many prisoners they would place in it. Not all of them were from Pandora, or Elpis, but instead nearby planets like Promethea, Atrios-6, Titan, Voleron, just to name a few. Given the lack of order on Pandora, it was rare that there would even _be_ any law for criminals to break.

The walls Matt was staring at as he closely followed the Psycho seemed freshly painted and the scent of the new coat entered his ears unwelcomingly. The smell of fresh paint was always a strange, unsatisfying aroma.

'Krieg, how much further?' He asked him nonchalantly. Krieg was surprised that he was not affected by his frequent insane ramblings and hard to understand comments, or his intimidating appearance.

'…Psychopathic purple liquid…' the man muttered, in a voice that sounded graver and vastly more…sane. The Anomaly, of course, immediately suspected schizophrenia, but decided not to question it.

'Krieg…?' Matt called out as prudently as possible, so as not to set the man off.

'DISTANCE: SMALL!' He declared, as loudly as he could, without alerting any guards.

'OK, good.'

Krieg wasn't wrong with his estimate. The distance _wasn't_ long, and soon they actually found something with a sign on. There was a corridor, with a sign above the hallway with, "200 – 299" sprawled over the top.

Aware that Gaige was in one of these cells, Matt lost all sense of stealth and sprinted down the corridor. The guard patrolling this section noticed him, but did not have time to report the breach, as the Anomaly punched him so hard he instantly knocked him out. Frantically, he looked along the numbers above each door.

 _221…222…223…come on…227…228…_

The corridor was by no means short but was also not that long. Each cell was about 1.5m by 1.5m area, which was long enough for him to take maybe 2 seconds for him to run the distance. Just under that, maybe.

 _234…235…236…238…239…239, it says "Krieg" so…240!_

Matt grew a smile ear to ear when the door had "Gaige" entitled on it in inexplicable gold. Krieg caught up with him, although it was hard to tell if the Psycho was happy. Presumably, he was.

The door was locked, but Krieg handed him a key. Finding the right one, the Anomaly fiddled with the lock, sighing exasperatedly at the temperamental nature of it, along with his own hurried behaviour. After a several pointed seconds of key-twiddling, the Vault Hunter succeeded in fitting it in the lock and turned it to the left, unlocking the door. There was a satisfying click when the key turned into place.

He hastily unlocked the door, a smile on his face. Matt hadn't even bothered to check the sliding panel on the side of the door because he was so eager to get Gaige out of the Gemini hellhole she'd been subjected to since Two and Four kidnapped her in Overlook two or three days ago.

Had the Anomaly checked it, he wouldn't have been surprised when he found that Gaige was not there.

In her place was a metal chair with chains that hung loosely by it, while the cuffs on the legs and arms of the uncomfortable, hard seat had been left unlocked.

'She isn't here,' Matt growled.

Immediately after he said that, the lights in the corridor switched from the off-hours lazy yellow, to the clear and more alert bright blue-white. He winced at the sudden increase in brightness.

From both sides of the hallway, countless Gemini guards appeared, trudging in their armour, pointing guns at Krieg and Matt. Two was on one side, wading through the crowd until he was at the front, with armed guards at both sides of him.

'Drop your weapons, now!' One of the guards demanded; her voice was stern and impatient.

'And don't even _think_ about using your Chronokinesis!' Two warned. 'The moment we see a single _spark,_ we'll shoot!'

Matt put his hands up, placing the gun carefully on the ground. Krieg followed suit.

'Did you _really_ think I wouldn't notice your rescue attempt?' Asked a voice condescendingly over the Lima Central intercom. Commander Sharp.

'Shit!' The Anomaly cursed, pressing two fingers to his ECHOear. 'Guys! Wake up, it's a trap!'

* * *

On Aurora's end, most of the Vault Hunters were still taking a nap. Maya and Aurora were the only ones up in the main guard tower, whilst everyone else had fallen asleep.

 _[Guys! Wake up, it's a trap!]_

The Revolverslinger and the Siren immediately jumped up at hearing the news from Matt over the ECHO.

'WAKE UP!' Maya yelled at them.

'WE'RE COMPROMISED!' Aurora bellowed. After a few seconds, the Vault Hunters opened their eyes, yawned, and got up. They were about to ask what was going on when a swarm of guards arrived at the main leisure room of the guard tower – the room that the Vault Hunters had collected in.

'Put your hands behind your head!' A guard ordered, patently making it clear it wasn't a suggestion. None of the Vault Hunters' guns were close enough to them to snatch them and fire back. If they tried, they'd certainly die, since there wasn't really any cover and a substantial amount of guards in the room.

Knowing that the only way out was to surrender, the Vault Hunters did as they were told and placed their hands behind their head. The guards began moving them out.

* * *

Matt breathed long and deep breaths, trying to contain his fury. Krieg was yelling about how he was going rip out their intestines and floss his teeth with them, which annoyed the guards so much that they immediately knocked him out.

'Two,' he unwelcomingly greeted.

'Mr Rye,' Two returned, just as unreceptively. 'Commander Sharp has ordered to see you.'

'I thought as much.'

'Then if you'd kindly walk with me, that'd be absolutely prodigious.'

A guard behind him ushered him along with the butt of his gun, jabbing him in the back painfully. Two of his fellow guards beside him hauled up Krieg's arms and dragged him across the floor. All of the other guards surrounded him threateningly, keeping their guns chest height so as to be on point at any possible moment.

'It's actually kind of cute that you thought it would _that_ easy infiltrating Lima Base One,' Two remarked, although did not sound too fascinated. 'We wouldn't be keeping prisoners here if the security wasn't up to scratch.'

The Anomaly looked at him indifferently. 'Just take me to Sharp. I don't care what words you have to say.'

Two responded by kneeing him hard in the ribs, eliciting a groan of pain from Matt as he fell to his knees. Sharp's second in command bent down and glared at the Vault Hunter.

' _You're_ not the one giving orders here, _Mr Rye._ ' He grabbed his chin, clawing his fingers into it, and forcefully moved it up to look at him. 'So I suggest you learn your place here.' Two let go and stood back up, and eventually so did the Vault Hunter, and they continued walking.

'Sir, shouldn't we put some cuffs on 'im or somethin'?' A guard politely asked.

'Unfortunately, Sharp has ordered that Matt be left unconstrained,' he revealed to him.

'Why?' The guard inquired.

'Because he says so,' Two disparagingly replied. 'Unless you want me to speak with him in person and say you thought his order was stupid?' The man visibly gulped at his superior's threat. Two murmured a "thought not" before hurrying the group along.

It wasn't long before they arrived at Commander Sharp's office. The door had his name written in extravagant silver, and it slid open to reveal his large, capacious office. Inside was the commander's desk, complete with an ECHO-Sphere holographic projector in the middle, and a Holo-Reader sat off to the side. **(A.N:** **Essentially a computer, but more hi-tech.)** The ECHO-Sphere was displaying something, but Matt could not see because it was one-way.

Two bookshelves sat at the back of the room beside his desk, and were full of books. Among the titles was _Gemini Soldiering Handbook_ , _A Note on Battle Strategy_ , _A Guide to the Medusa Sector_ , the classic story _Trials & Tribulations_, and its infamous sequel _Rules & Regulations. _Sharp was an avid reader.

Two parts of the left and right walls of the room had display mounts with different Gemini weapons that had been made over the years and were specific to only people working at the corporation. There were also some Atlas and Hyperion weapons scattered in between the other weapons, such as a Conference Call and an Ogre.

A crest of the Gemini diamond logo sat on the wall beside one of the displays, its G paved in shiny metal. Nothing looked more pompous and prideful than having that obnoxious logo present on your white, politically correct wall.

To the other side was an airlocked window, similar to those present on a submarine, complete with the bolts around the circular sill.

Three long, thin strips of LED-based light were embedded in the ceiling, looking so boring and symmetrical, as though it had been made to be as inoffensive as physically possible.

And of course, sitting in the black, flawless leather chair was Commander Sharp, looking very smug indeed. Too smug for his own good. He switched off the ECHO-Sphere to address Matt.

'Mr Rye, I knew you'd find your way here eventually,' he claimed. 'All too desperate to save the Mechromancer, are we?'

 _'_ _Where is she?'_ The Anomaly demanded, rage glinting in his eyes.

'I'm the one asking questions, here.'

 _'_ _Tell me.'_

'Well, since you asked so nicely…' Sharp degraded, pressing the button on his ECHO-Sphere and reactivating it. He flipped the screen so the Anomaly could see what it displayed.

Gaige was sat, knees to face, on a tiled floor of some large storage room. She wasn't moving, but it was evident the Vault Hunter was still alive. Her arms and legs had various cuts and scars on them, which hinted to Matt just what Gemini had done to her.

'Would you like to see her?' Commander Sharp offered superciliously, although he did not need to a response to guess the answer. He nodded to one of his guards, and he smacked Matt in the back of the head with his assault rifle, knocking the Anomaly out.

* * *

By the time Matt woke up, his fellow Vault Hunters had already been brought and chained up in the same, open room he had been confined to. It took a while before he could properly gauge his surroundings, as his vision was murky.

The floor was cold, and extremely uninviting, but Matt had gone through worse. He'd had to sleep in caves back before he arrived in Sanctuary. A cold floor was just about tolerable. Perhaps uncomfortable, but it wasn't like Sharp was planning on being hospitable to someone who was, on all accounts, his enemy.

Looking around, Krieg was lying down unconscious. No doubt, Commander Sharp had injected someone kind of drug to keep him sedated, considering the Psycho was the most physically imposing enemy out of all the Vault Hunters that'd been captured.

Eventually he noticed Gaige, still motionless, cowering in the corner a couple meters away from him. Both of them were chained up and unable to move from their spots, yet the Mechromancer was not even displaying any signs of cognition.

'Gaige!' The Anomaly called out. She didn't respond. 'Gaige, can you hear me? It's me, Matt!'

'Matt…'

'Yes!'

'Matt's…soft…'

'What?' The Vault Hunter asked, but she still did not react.

'Stars shine…' Gaige uttered. Whatever she was trying to get across – if she _was_ trying – was completely unintelligible, and did not aid in making her appear to be on any degree of sanity. She was edging on complete psychosis. And judging by her lack of awareness, and her general senselessness, the torture could have inflicted some kind of neuropathy, too.

'God, what did they do to you?' The Anomaly wondered worriedly, attempting to move closer to her, but was restricted by the length of the metal manacles that tied him back. He tried his best to push his arm further, but eventually Matt could not overcome the force of his metal.

Matt struggled to activate his Chronokinesis, as every time he did, he could feel the released energy being absorbed and drained out of him. In fact, being in the room as a whole felt like it was draining the Anomaly's powers. As far as he was aware, Gemini had not figured out any way to drain Siren energy, since they never studied Sirens and hardly acknowledged them. Little research was completed on his Chronokinesis, as he left the company shortly after he gained them.

Abruptly, the door behind them opened, and the Vault Hunter had to shield his eyes from the sudden influx of light into the room. After some adjusting, he could see who had entered the room.

Commander Sharp walked in with a flurry of Gemini guards behind him. Posture tall and hands connected behind his back, Sharp looked to Matt smugly.

'You might as well be talking to the wall there, Mr Rye,' he coldly and humourlessly joked. 'She's merely a blank slate now. She's not going to be able to help you.'

'Even if that were true, I don't care,' the Anomaly retorted bitterly. 'I'm getting Gaige out of here, and that's final.'

'Now is not the time for bold claims, Mr Rye,' the commander advised unhelpfully.

'Is there a reason for you being here?' The Vault Hunter demanded, ignoring his guidance.

'Yes, actually,' he confirmed, turning to one of his henchmen and tilting his head in the direction of the door. In understanding of his command, his lackeys threw in the remainder of Matt's Vault Hunter allies – all unconscious, but evidently unharmed. Gemini did love to use sedatives quite a bit.

Two other guards unbound Matt and Gaige respectively, grabbing them roughly and forcing them out of the room. The Anomaly knew that, in presence of a dozen Gemini guards and no access to his Chronokinesis, it would be hopeless to fight back.

'Do you like drainers?' Commander Sharp asked him condescendingly. 'They're very experimental, but seem to be working well. Based off of the Vault Key they are, or what information we have of it, except in reverse. Instead of absorbing Siren power inputted, it drains pre-existing energy out of a target in its area of effect.'

'You're not very smart, are you? I mean, you just told what they are and how they work.'

'It's not like knowing is going to help _stop_ them.'

Opting not to tell him why he was wrong, Matt chose to just be silent and allow the man to take him and Gaige where he needed to.

 _Well, Sharp said they're experimental, so they must have a limit to them…right?_

It wasn't a stretch, nor an obvious deduction, but it seemed likely. If they were experimental, it was highly unlikely that they worked perfectly – especially if it was based on technology that they didn't actually have access to. Theoretically then, it would not be known how much of this energy they could drain before they reached max capacity, and therefore cease to function.

'Where are you taking us?' The Anomaly finally queried, almost saying "me" instead, but remembered that Gaige – as blank as she was right now – was still here.

'You're going to fulfil your purpose,' Sharp vaguely answered. When Matt stared at him blankly, he continued. 'You're going to open the Vault for us.'

'I'm not going to let you mess around with what ought not to be messed around with!' The Vault Hunter protested, but Sharp gave him a smirk.

'We'll see about that…'

At least fifteen minutes passed, and they arrived at a set of metal double doors with a keycard slot positioned next to it. Matt had remembered seeing while he was "sneaking" around the building, but discarded any more thoughts on it since he knew he wouldn't be able to access it. Of course, the young man would not have any idea of its importance or his future affiliation with it.

Sharp swiped his black and white keycard across the slot, and it switched from baseline orange to accepting green. The deadlock on the doors unlocked, and there was sound of air escaping, and they slightly swung inwards. Two of the guards pushed the door open completely, and beckoned towards the other two behind Matt and Gaige respectively. They push both of them forward with their guns, and Matt got the message to move forward. Gaige didn't register anyone interacting with her, so the guard was forced to grab her by the shoulder and force her along.

Behind the door was a thin room, but clearly not for conventional purposes. There were desks complete with an array of scientific equipment, like spectrometers, energy meters, microscopes, Geiger counters, electrocardiograms, and the whole lot. Scientists, one each, stood by each desk, performing various tasks, like mixing chemicals in test tubes, and combining liquids in flask, apparently trying to make something which was labelled on their wall as "physical enhancement" – likely some sort of drug.

Almost as if…they were…experimenting on someone.

At the back was another door, with a bulletproof glass panel. He could not see much behind the door, since it was frosted, but could make out some kind of metal contraption and a lot of people parading around it. Apart from that, the Anomaly wasn't too sure.

'What kind of sick experiment is this, Sharp?!' Matt exclaimed derisively, causing all the scientists to notice his presence.

'"Sick" is such an unfair way to describe it when you don't even know what it is yet,' the commander laughed callously.

'Do you think I'm stupid?' He criticised. 'It's pretty easy to guess that you're going to use me in some kind of experiment!' The guard behind pushed him forward again, and the Vault Hunter hesitantly stepped toward the door.

'As smart as ever, Matt,' Sharp phonily praised. 'No matter. You're still going to help open the Vault for us.' The commander walked forward, with his lackeys ushering the two Vault Hunters along, and unlocked the door with his keycard. He pushed the door in, to reveal a larger room clearly made for practical scientific purposes.

There was a metal crosshatch floor with glossy black walls, and only three scientists in. All of them were inspecting some kind of harness in the centre of the room. It had four metal cylinders facing towards the machine, which were hollow in the inside, evidently made for someone's legs and arms to fit in, while they were rigged into the harness.

'What the hell…?' The Vault Hunter gawped in horror. Was he supposed to go in _that_?

'We may not have had much time to research your powers, Mr Rye,' Commander Sharp elaborated, 'but we have been able to figure a few things out. When you activate your Chronokinesis, you release some unknown form of Siren-based energy. We don't know where you draw it from, but we know what we can _use_ it for.

'A sufficient amount of said energy, when used correctly, can open the Vault all by itself. Normally, I would consider using our drainers to draw out this energy, but this energy seems to "evaporate" over time. A lot of time and effort has gone into figuring out how we can maintain this energy without it disappearing somewhere. Thus, I present you this machine, codename Bravo-11.

'It works by absorbing and storing the energy you create while using your Chronokinesis. We store in some kind of "pseudo Vault Key" which can open the Vault when applied correctly. With it, we can repossess the technology and knowledge inside the Vault for ourselves, bolstering Gemini's influence and power, allowing us to take control of the galaxy.

'Once you get into that machine and provide us with this energy, we can go after the Vault. After all, we know where it is.' Matt's eyes widened, nonplussed, at this information. 'That's right. It's not that hard to find it when we have a giant satellite orbiting and scanning the planet. How do you think Hyperion found the Vault of the Warrior so quickly? Same principal here, however, we couldn't open it since only you can. For now, it's just useless.

'Unfortunately, for you, the Raider patrols between the Dust and the Highlands will amount to nothing considering we have cloaking technology. Don't tell me you _actually_ thought you could get to the Vault before us? That'd be ludicrous, Mr Rye. We're talking about the force of two _major_ corporations here versus…a group of inept rebels.

'Now, if you would kindly rig into the machine, so we can draw out this energy, charge our pseudo-Vault Key and…well, _win,_ that would be lovely.'

'I don't see what part of this involves Gaige,' Matt interrogated him, showing no semblance of acquiescence.

'She's incentive,' the commander informed him coldly. The Anomaly scowled at him, although not altogether sure what he meant. Or rather, he had an idea, but hoped to God it wasn't true. Sharp answered his unasked question by pulling out a handgun and pointing it directly at the Mechromancer's head. 'If you don't do what I want, then your cute little girlfriend is going become a _dead_ little girlfriend. Don't think I'll hesitate to put a bullet in her head.' Matt glowered at him, clenching his fists in rage.

'I swear to God one of these days I'm gonna kill you.'

'Charming,' he mocked. Sharp closed the door, leaving the guards behind it.

 _He must be confident that this is gonna go his way,_ the Vault Hunter observed.

'Gaige, I know you're in there,' he pleaded to her. Gaige the Mechromancer didn't respond. Her eyes were still staring off into space, bloodshot and murky. 'Snap out of it! I don't know what they did to you, but you're stronger than that.' Commander Sharp had a good chuckle at what he said.

'Your attempts are laughable,' he ridiculed, before immediately switching to an antithetically insensitive, icy demeanour. 'Excuse my language, but, get in the fucking machine.' Matt stared at Gaige longingly, and eventually their eyes met. The Mechromancer didn't seem to recognise his face, or where she was, or that she was even being addressed.

Reluctantly, Matt started to get in the machine, stalling for as long as possible. He tried to be as slow in his movements, but Sharp was having none of it. The commander shot at the ground by Gaige to make an example, risking the bullet ricocheting, but luckily, the floor was weak enough that it ended up just making a bullet hole in the ground.

With all four major limbs in the machine, Sharp nodded to one of the scientists to activate. She pressed a few buttons and pulled down a lever.

Lo and behold, nothing happened.

Commander Sharp furrowed his brow in major confusion; angrily, he marched over to the scientist he'd authorised to activate the machine.

'What the _hell_ happened?!' The Gemini battalion leader demanded. The scientist shrugged, and typed into the keyboard in front of him. The holographic display opened a few tabs, before displaying an error message under the Bravo-11 tab. The scientist typed further, and the tab expanded to inform further details. It claimed, "CIRCUIT FAILURE" was the problem, and flashed red on the screen incrementally.

'It says there was some sort of circuit failure, sir,' the scientist recited. His superior gave him a look that perfectly embodied, "I can _read_ , asshole" and the scientist shut up and edged away in fear.

'What did you do?!' Commander Sharp demanded of Matt, trudging over to him and glaring angrily at him.

' _I_ didn't do anything,' The Anomaly remarked in astonishment and confusion. Sharp tightened the hold on his gun.

'TELL ME! Or she gets it!' He threatened, pointing the gun at her neck. Abruptly, she leant back slightly, which distracted the commander. 'What are you doing?'

To his utter surprise, Gaige spun around faster than Sharp could distinguish and snatched the gun out of his hands, promptly pistol whipping him across side of his face. The commander plummeted to the ground.

'I was checking which hand you were holding the gun in, _Sharp-dick,_ ' she victoriously insulted, even though the man was already, hilariously, unconscious. The Mechromancer averted her attention to the three scientists. 'Don't even _think_ about hitting the silent alarm. Otherwise you're gonna get face full o' lead.' They nodded avidly, and she calmly walked over and knocked them all out with tranquiliser darts from Sharp's pockets. Once they were disposed of, she switched to her more ebullient, inanely ecstatic disposition.

'Gaige!' The Anomaly called out in relief. She immediately turned her head to him, running over and unclasping the restraints and allowing Matt to get free. As soon as he escaped, he hugged her tightly. 'I knew they wouldn't be able to get to you.'

' _Duh,'_ the Mechromancer joked. She winced in pain at the Vault Hunter embracing her so tightly. 'Ah, man. This feels like déjà vu.' Understanding what she meant, Matt let go and apologised for hurting her (accidentally), which made her laugh.

But onto more pressing matters.

'Sharp's got those draining things all around Lima Central: he's activated all of them,' he elucidated, 'I think I can still use my Chronokinesis, but maybe for only a few milliseconds of real time.'

'How long is that in your time?' The Vault Hunter asked him.

'At second tier, with no charging up, that's 15 seconds minimum. The cooldown would be _insane._ '

'That should be enough to take out the guards outside.' The Mechromancer smiled at their eminent victory.

Matt looked worriedly at her holding the handgun. 'Do you want… _me_ to take that?' Gaige looked at him puzzlingly.

'Why?'

'Gaige, your accuracy –'

'Accuracy is what you train your eyes on when you're worried about low damage.' The Anomaly raised his eyebrow at that. 'I can hit with enough attack power that it won't matter.' Matt reluctantly nodded at that and decided to roll with it. He had faith in his girlfriend.

With complete confidence in mind, the Vault Hunters opened the door and Matt instinctively activated Chronokinesis. Time slowed down as the guards began to notice them. At second tier, with all those drainers around, Matt didn't have enough strength or time to charge it up – especially when the energy being released was being drawn from him every single microsecond. Auspiciously, time was slowed enough for him to take down the guards.

Faster than anyone could actually predict, he ran around each of the guards and threw them around the room. With a swift motion, he snapped their necks and killed them. No mercy. Not against those who had nearly killed him and Gaige.

Fatigue overwhelmed him, and the Anomaly stopped after the 15 second mark to catch his breath. Time almost instantly reached normality, and he was left to overcome his nausea. Gaige went over to him and rubbed his back for comfort, and soon he was feeling better. Although, the young man was still too weak to use his Chronokinesis yet, maybe a couple minutes and it'd be back in use again. Evidently, the drainers had taken quite a lot of the energy he released, reducing his aura effect and weakening him.

'So, where do we go now?' The Mechromancer asked.

'Commander Sharp's office,' the Anomaly replied. 'We should be able to shut off the drainers remotely from there. He also knows where the Vault is, so we can download the data from his ECHO-Sphere.' She nodded, and they picked up two of the guards' guns. They soon went on their merry way, running around the facility before someone could catch them.

Took a while, but they finally got the leg-up on the Gemini Corporation. Pulling the wool over Sharp's eyes must've been a riveting experience. Gaige's performance was so good that she even had Matt fooled, but being the hopeful, aspirational type, he believed that she was still sane. And the Mechromancer was.

'Hey, Gaige?' He randomly called. She looked at him endearingly.

'Yeah?'

'How long have you been faking being insane?'

'Not long. After Three left, I realized I needed some way of tricking them. Once I realized they were going to use that machine, I messed with the circuits while they weren't looking. And then I –' Suddenly, the Mechromancer stopped, dead in her tracks.

'What? What is it?'

'I almost forgot. While I was subjected to a drug – perhexiline – I started hearing voices. I-I thought I was going insane, but slowly, it started to sound like some sort of…observer. Watching in the background, and only _now_ intervening in events.'

'Weird. Do you have any idea who it was?'

'Not really but…' She paused, remembering even more about what the voice wanted. '…Sh-she told me to give you message. S-Something that only you would understand.'

'What was the message?' The Anomaly asked cautiously, almost scared to find out.

'These words exactly: **"the only water that flows in the forest is the river."** '

Upon hearing those words, Matt's eyes widened beyond belief, and he froze up at hearing them. All of sudden, it appeared like everything he believed what either being questioned or had been confirmed.

'No…no…there's no way…it…I thought she might…but…' the Vault Hunter stuttered. 'S-She can't be…'Ora told me not to…'

'What does it mean, Matt?' The Mechromancer worriedly inquired. Somehow, those eleven words had struck a serious chord with him. Seemingly, yet unknowingly, the girl had hit an extremely sensitive spot in the Anomaly's mind that not even Aurora had seen before. What was so significant about that phrase that warranted such an intense reaction?

'It's a long forgotten memory…'

'From who?'

'Gaige, I want you to listen _very carefully.'_ She nodded vehemently at that. 'What I'm about to tell you, it will likely blow your mind. Someone said that once. Only _one_ person I know.'

'Who?'

'Amelia.'

'What?'

'Amelia… _Rye.'_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOH! Some big reveals this chapter! Gaige was faking it the whole time to trick Commander Sharp! She got the idea after that voice departed, and she realized the only way she was going to get out of this wat to pretend to give him what he wanted.**

 **Speaking of the voice, turns out it was Amelia Rye, Matt's deceased sister, the** ** _whole_** **time! Wait to find out** ** _how_** **she managed to communicate with her from beyond the grave, and just what significance those words meant that prompted her to use them as a message. Not gonna lie, I didn't initially plan the 'voice' to have any real importance, but after I while I realize it was a perfect way to hint further that she was still alive, so I went with it.** ** _Masterful writing?_** **I dunno.**

 **Furthermore, did anyone else notice that Gaige's mutterings to Matt were the exact same as** ** _his_** **mutters whilst he was in a coma after the Gulag incident? Well, I did? Because that's the point. Most of those words weren't hers actually;** ** _someone else_** **was feeding them into her. That's just a hint.**

 **Also, dunno why it took me so long to name the chapter after Axton's skill, Gemini, since that's the name of the sneaky corporation that half of this fanfiction revolves around. But there you go.**

 **Anyways, the next chapter will start with a flashback explaining the origin of the words, "The only water that flows in the forest is the river."**

 **See you then!**


	28. Wreck

**Hello faithful subscribers! No, I'm not Gaige, but…whatever, it's a new update. It didn't take me too long to write this long since I've been building up to the beginning flashback for a while, so I knew where I was going with it. It's a little backstory on Darios and what it's like there. It's got a stark contrast between the wastelands and the rich utopian cities.**

 **With school starting up, these updates will slow. That's natural. But I'm so close to done now it's hard to want to stop. So I've just written a few notes to go on ahead with how the sequel (if it happens) may or may not work. I already know the ending I am gonna have to this – which will include a lot of new knowledge about things that already exist in the** ** _Borderlands_** **universe. Like extra exposition. I think you'll like it.**

 **Chapter Twenty-Eight: Wreck**

* * *

 _Darios, a really long time ago_

* * *

Matt Rye, the Darosian citizen, sighed indifferently. Boring planet, boring world, but vaguely interesting landscapes and need for exploration. That's how you describe Darios, as a whole.

'Mattie, c'mon!' A tiny, fragile, high-pitched voice called out to him.

The person who called that out was none other than his six-year-old sister, Amelia Rye. She was begging him to follow her on her little exploration "mission" around the accessible borders of Krolantia, the continent that the Rye family lived on – along with numerous other high-class families.

Most of Darios beyond the city of Acropolis was fairly barren, heavily impacted by wars and battles fought across the surface. The planet had faced far too many conflicts ever to be considered stable or healthy, so eventually the planet was split into multiple governments, one for each continent. A truce – or more accurately, _non-aggression pact_ – was formed to prevent further "disagreements" and to promote peace.

Amelia didn't like being cooped up in their rich, skyscraper-like home in Acropolis, and instead wanted to have look around the small continent. Not like, in any respect, there was much to find, but the Darosian didn't have the heart (or lack thereof) to tell his sister – who mind you, _was_ only two years younger than himself – that it was pointless to seek adventure.

Truthfully, he liked a bit of it himself. There may not have been much fun to be had on Darios, but his sister was the prime example, and living embodiment of, having fun and enjoying yourself. That was what he loved the most about his adorable little sister.

'I'm coming, Amy!' He ensured, picking up his pace. They had just left the city and were exploring the mountainous areas and hilled areas that populated Krolantia more than the actual Darosians. 'Just don't –'

'Get too ahead of myself!' Amelia finished for him, which made the Darosian smile warmly. Quickly, Matt caught up with her and the two were walking side by side. Amelia was really enjoying taking in the sights, although her brother was being more prudent with his exploratory actions and tendencies.

Of course, the younger Rye wanted to see the flora and maybe the fauna, or what was left of it. The more barren areas beyond the large cities on the continent weren't necessarily lifeless; however, most of it was flora. Any fauna remaining was usually harmless, since Darosians were too advanced to be anything except top of the food chain, although, there was the odd malicious animal that _tried_ to make a meal out of them.

'Ooh! What's that over there?' Amelia asked, pointing to some kind of gecko that watched them and then scarpered off when it realised it was seen. The gecko, even if it had only been observed for a few moments, had been magnificent. It had a light green body with dark green stripes arranged across it. Two, round, small, eyes with cute, massive eyelids completed the face, and they gave off this image of pleasant relaxation – even when it was running away.

'That was a…Futarian Goblin…!' Matt recognised in amazement. 'I thought those were extinct…!'

'Where's it going?' Amelia wondered, still able to see it as it slowly ran away.

'If it's alive, then it must have a good source of food,' he surmised, proud that that was probably one of his smartest moments. 'We should follow it!'

So, they ran after the gecko, which increased its speed dramatically when it noticed they were chasing after it. Whatever it was running towards, it must've been important. They chased it through the valley, which resembled something of a glacial trough, but minus the truncated spurs. There was a sharp turn that it took, but the duo was able to keep up with it long enough to stumble upon something incredible.

The valley gave way into a small forest of sorts, completely intact as though the area _hadn't_ been decimated by all manner of weaponry. Larger than an oasis, there was a small stream running through it, like a brook. What surviving animals there were feasted here, likely grateful that Darios also wasn't so hot that all the water evaporated.

'Wow!' Amelia gawked. 'I've never seen a forest before!' It was truly incredible.

'I saw one in a picture once…' Matt absentmindedly commented. 'Let's go and have a look.'

They walked through the small, luscious patch, marvelling at the wonder of there actually still being somewhere with hydrated life on Darios. Both of them hoped they initially weren't hallucinating, but Matt doubted they could both have the _exact_ same one at the _exact_ same time. Amelia reached out and touched the leaves on the trees, and enjoyed the soft texture a few of them had.

Eventually they made it to the river, which wasn't too long, but stretched out for maybe half a mile or perhaps a full mile. They were six and eight, so neither of them could judge distances that well. Amelia ran her hand through the current, and instantly loved the cold feeling it provided. Matt leant down and felt it too, before comically splashing some in his sister's face.

'Hey!' She jokingly complained, before sticking her hand deep in the water, and building up a large slosh of water. Amelia threw it all at Matt, who closed his eyes in comical fear and was instantly drenched.

Both of them ended up laughing immensely at their own predicament. "Fortuitous" could not even begin to describe how benign it was for them to experience something Darosians had not for centuries.

Lying down on the grass by the river, Amelia looked over her older brother. 'Hey Mattie?'

'What is it, Amy?' The boy asked her.

'Do you think there are any other places like this?'

'Hopefully!' Matt laughed, shaking his wet collar. He lowered his tone of voice comically. ' _Or maybe not…_ '

'I think spring water is hard to find.'

'Yeah, it is.'

Spring water was unsurprisingly uncommon on Darios. Most of the water the planet received was man-made, as was a few of the rivers. There were large bodies of ocean water once, though, but those had shrivelled up and were much smaller than before. It was also quite expensive to convert saltwater into freshwater. Or, generally, just water that could be drank. Copious conflicts in the planet's turbulent past meant that springwater areas had been destroyed and reshaped into uneven, barren ranges, which were infinitely more boring and less touristic.

Such a state of Darios made it seem completely different from its sister planet Atrios, and subsequent "cousin" planets like Atrios-6. Atrios-6, in particular, was quite a nice place to visit, with many luscious forests, which had wonderful lakes and rivers. Once, Darios was the same. Not anymore, though.

Amelia thought about what to say next. There weren't many natural rivers or streams on Darios, and there wasn't any guarantee that these micro-forests would also have them.

'I think the only water that flows in the forest is the river,' she replied. 'These streams are hard to find unless someone made them, so I hope there are more of these forest thingies around Darios.'

'Me too, Amy,' her brother agreed. _'Me too.'_

* * *

The Anomaly appeared tense after reliving and retelling that memory. He could remember it almost perfectly, possibly because Gaige's message had triggered it. In fact, the vivid details that his brain had for that particularly time, oh so long ago, scared him a little. It might've been one of the best memories he had with his adorable little sister, since the forest was later found by government nationalists, who ended up destroying the entire, beautiful reserve whilst attempting to regenerate the area.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend looked at him forlornly.

'Your sister sounded lovely,' the Mechromancer commented, crestfallen.

'Yeah she was,' the Vault Hunter agreed, before remembering what the point of telling her that painful memory actually was. 'So, as you can tell, that message was from Amelia.'

'But…she's…'

'I know. There's no way your brain just made that up, so I guess, in some form, Amelia's alive.'

'I don't get how she was communicating telepathically to me. Regardless of if she's a ghost or a spirit, she shouldn't be able to do that,' Gaige reasoned, but Matt looked unsure.

'Well, the thing is…' he stammered. 'You're not the only one she's tried talking to.'

'She's been talking to you, too?'

'For years. I used to imagine her, but I guess she might've been real. For some reason though, the contact faded over time, I suppose. Now, I just hear her mutters and calls every so often.'

'What's she saying to you?'

'Last time, Amelia claimed she was "waiting for me,"' he disclosed. 'Whatever that means.'

'Could she be talking about the Vault?' Gaige sporadically guessed.

'Could be, but what does _she_ have to do with the Vault?' The Anomaly pointed out. The Mechromancer nodded in defeat to that. He was right. Amelia had died _before_ Matt had gained the connection to the Vault, so there was no way she could have anything to do with it.

Finally, they continued on their way to Commander Sharp's office, arriving there a minute or two later. The door was still unlocked, propitiously, so Gaige and Matt were able to enter the room at a moment's notice. No one was inside, except now for Matt and Gaige, which definitely made their job easy.

Matt went over to his desk and looked through the files on his Holo-Reader. Multiple tabs were opened, which were completely irrelevant, but eventually he found the digital control panel for some of the processes in Lima Base One. With a few clicks, he disabled the drainers in the facility, and already the Anomaly could feel his energy returning to him and his nausea subsiding. He also unlocked all doors, allowing his Vault Hunter allies to escape from imprisonment in the room they'd been thrown in earlier. Fortuitously, no one had had time to chain them up.

Looking towards the ECHO-Sphere, he pulled out his connection cord and synced it up with his ECHOear. He connected the lead into the ECHO-Sphere, downloading all of the data on the unit. It took about thirty seconds.

'I got it!' Matt announced, yanking the cord off and placing it back in one of his pockets. He motioned for her to move, and they ran out of the room.

After roughly ten minutes of running, jogging, stopping, walking and repeating, Gaige and Matt eventually turned a corner in which the rest of their allies ran into them.

Salvador, being the small size he was, almost fell over when Matt collided with him; meanwhile, Gaige's metal arm almost knocked Axton out with the force of their crash into each other. They all looked at each other in bewilderment, taking a few seconds to get a handle of their surroundings.

'Gaige!' Aurora called in glee, happy that her now-considered friend had returned after what felt like decades of isolation from each other.

'Matt found you?' Axton asked. She nodded. Eventually, the Mechromancer turned her attention to Krieg.

'Krieg?!' The Vault Hunter addressed in pure wonder at the once missing companion. 'Did Gemini have you here the _whole_ time?'

'I WAS OUT ON THE BORDERLANDS AND THEY GAVE ME SLEEPY!' The Psycho explained, vaguely foretelling what happened to him while he was missing. Gaige mutely nodded.

'Why didn't you guys tell us where you were?' Matt lightly complained, too frustrated with the Sharp situation to get into any full blown arguments.

'Sorry, those Gemini dicks stole our ECHOs so we couldn't communicate,' Axton elaborated.

'Yeah, we dunno where they are,' Sal added. The Anomaly put a single finger up to the man, as if he was telling him to shush. The Vault Hunter charged up his Chronokinesis and disappeared, prior to returning moments later with all their ECHOs and any other equipment.

'Looks like you were doing just fine on your own,' Lilith observed, picking out her one and restarting it. 'What did Sharp want with you, anyway?'

'He knows where the Vault is,' the Anomaly elucidated, having quickly read the files when he was with Gaige. 'He's known this entire time. However, he can't open it early because, as I said before, only _I_ can do that. Apparently, this particular Vault doesn't need as much Eridium from the Vault Key as others. According to the files, there's another fifty years before _this_ specific Vault can open via key access, but the commander's not comfortable with waiting that long.'

'So, was he gonna force you to open the Vault, or…?' Maya wondered, trying to figure it out for herself.

'No. He…created this kind of machine that could absorb and store the Siren-based energy I release when I use Chronokinesis, in order to activate the Vault – essentially creating another Vault Key. From what they can tell, this energy is similar to the Eridium power that allows Lilith to charge the Vault Key. Though, it seems to be in a different form. As you might've guessed, my Siren ability is the only known one that treats and releases it in said form.'

'Right,' Lilith somewhat understood. 'I take it he failed in operating the machine?'

'Gaige faked being insane so she wouldn't be noticed by Sharp when she messed around with the circuits to the machine.'

'Really? Nice work, Gaige,' Axton praised.

'That's all well and good / But if Sharp knows where it is / We can find the Vault,' Zer0 pointed out, steering the conversation to what was marginally more important.

'I got you covered,' the Anomaly confirmed, taking out his ECHOear and showing it to them. 'I downloaded the data from his Holo-Reader, so the location of the Vault's on it.'

'Apparently Gemini's been hiding it with cloaking technology this _whole_ time,' Gaige added disgruntledly.

The other Vault Hunters looked very displeased at the reveal of _that_ particular modicum of information. They'd been looking for this new Vault for months, and only now did they find out that pretty much all of it was for nothing. It was unfortunate indeed. Gaige had been so eager to find it when she got over Matt's "death" that they were surprised by how well she took the news. While she was definitely upset by it, they would've expected her to be much angrier about the situation. Meanwhile, Matt was Matt, so, of course he was annoyed, so even he was a little surprised that the Mechromancer didn't scream and shout at any point after revealing her sanity. Torture probably granted you a better perspective on your priorities, they supposed. Still a little disconcerting, though.

'Well, on that token, amigos, there's nothing left for us here. I guess we should get out of here ASAP,' Mordecai concluded, thinking about how soon it would be before Sharp was able to put the entire base on red alert.

'Yeah, just a little bit,' Brick agreed. "ASAP" was a coveted term of his.

As if by command, all of the lights in the building switched to an alarming red colour, and began flashing urgently. A siren sound started blaring relentlessly, and the intercom to both Lima Central and Lima Base One activated.

'ALERT. ALERT. INTRUDERS DETECTED. SECURITY COMPROMISED. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT: THIS IS NOT A DRILL,' warned a robotic voice repeatedly. It began to go quiet for a few moments when another voice took over.

'Alert: man the stations and prevent any and all escapee attempts,' James Sharp's voice commanded. 'Currently, the Vault Hunters are located in Hallway B-6 of Lima Central. Among the intruders are Matt Rye and Aurora Lux, do _not_ kill Matt Rye or Aurora Lux. All other unauthorised personnel are to be shot on sight. Repeat: Among the intruders are Matt Rye and…'

'Uh…ha…um… _run?'_ The Anomaly suggested, his nervous laughter perfectly conveying his uncertainty. At the moment that single verb came out of his mouth, the Vault Hunters sprinted to the entrance zone, where, no doubt, there were going to be a _lot_ of Gemini soldiers. Most of them would of course be gearing up to run into the compound and kill any non-essentials.

Commander Sharp's rude awakening was proven through the intercom announcements, where he sounded very uncomfortable and perhaps groggy. No doubt, it was a little embarrassing to be outsmarted like that and then promptly pistol whipped with your own weapon. The man deserved much more than just that, though.

As they approached the last two hallways, the place became littered with very stern Gemini soldiers. Clearly, they weren't there to talk. They fired immediately, as ordered, and the Vault Hunters ducked behind cover, firing back.

There were several Elites, along with their heavy armour, who kept throwing patches of AOE shock patches using their Needle Devices, which threatened to zap them and drain their shields. Conquistadors were also in frequent supply, setting off multiple explosions with their digistructed rockets and causing major damage to their shields. Fortunately, there were no Deceptors, mainly because they were for stealth purposes, so there was no chance that any of the Gemini soldiers would sneak through their cover and force them to move.

'We don't have time for this!' The Anomaly complained, sighing angrily. He activated his Chronokinesis and took out the guards within less than a second. Unfortunately, Sharp had reactivated the drainers, which meant that his ability had temporarily weakened. There would quite some time before he could use it again.

Finally, they entered the main hub of Lima Central. Expectedly, it was sprawling with Gemini soldiers: most of which were Elites, since their Needles could disable them pretty easily. It seemed like a firefight was the only option. The Vault Hunters were about to jump behind cover, but a voice interrupted.

'You've got nowhere to run, Mr Rye!' Commander Sharp's voice tauntingly called out. He stepped through the crowd with his soldiers on each side of him. Cameras in the building began to broadcast the scene through the entirety of Lima Base One, allowing all agents of Gemini to watch the number one traitor face off against the leader of the Gemini military legion.

 _Damn!_ Matt susurrated in his head. _I wasn't expecting him to arrive here so quickly!_

'You may as well give it up,' the commander advised, as the Conquistadors kept their rockets on standby.

'I'm _not_ helping you, Sharp,' Matt replied. 'I don't help people as uncaring and ruthless as you.'

'Have you forgotten where you're standing?' Commander Sharp rhetorically asked him. On cue, several of his soldiers prepped their guns, creating chunking sounds to signify that their weapons were ready. ' _Allow me to remind you.'_

'You're nothing but a lying, cheating corporation!' Aurora insulted. Her former superior tilted his head at her demeanour.

'Really? We haven't lied about much, when you think about it,' he claimed.

'You said there were no Vault Hunters left!' She reminded him.

'Because we hadn't been to Pandora too often,' Commander Sharp said. 'And _no_ word of Vault Hunters had come from it for a while, so we just assumed they weren't there anymore.'

'Well you lied about your connection to Hyperion!' Aurora pointed out.

'Really, Ms Lux? I thought you were smarter than that,' he degraded, crossing his arms disappointedly.

The Revolverslinger raised an eyebrow at that.

'We never _lied_ about our partnership with Hyperion, we just never _told_ you about it.'

'Why?!' Matt and Aurora demanded.

'We had no need to,' the commander responded nonchalantly. 'Did you not _wonder_ why we didn't hide it at all? Or why you were allowed to access it on that little wrist device of yours?' Aurora batted an eye towards her wrist, where the bracelet device once was. She had long since discarded the device, at some point after leaving Gemini and joining Matt. Right now, the woman almost wished she'd kept it just as an example.

'What do you _mean_ you had no "need" to?!' Gaige chimed in. 'Hyperion murdered Matt's sister! I'd say that's a good _need_ since you could've prevented it!'

'No, it's not,' Sharp corrected her. 'While I could have a put a stop to it, I didn't for a reason.' Matt immediately became suspicious and a little angrier at hearing that. Sharp could've prevented his sister's death at any time. But he didn't!

'And what reason would that be?' The Anomaly demanded.

'Easy,' he asserted. 'I was the one who ordered the hit.'

'WHAT?!' Aurora, Gaige and, a little louder, Matt yelled in disbelief and rage.

'Yes. _I_ sent that assassin.'

'Why?!' The Anomaly demanded, tears slowly forming in the corners of his eyes. Cameras zoomed in Matt, capturing his rage and despair.

'Well I had to motivate you _somehow_ to hunt down the Vault,' Sharp elaborated. 'Not to mention it would make you _hate_ Hyperion, which would make it easier to destroy them later on. Having a powerful ally would be useful, since the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

'Of course, Hyperion only agreed to send that assassin because they required a suitable candidate for the Genisys Project. I knew you were perfectly eligible Matt, and I _knew_ it would work with you. Surely, you would've wondered why on Earth that assassin didn't kill you when it had the chance?

'To rub salt into the wound for you, it also provided me with a means to open the Vault, and free the Vault Monster inside. That Guardian is rumoured to have unknown technologies housed within it. It was the Genisys Project that even invested me into Vaults to begin with. The idea of creating a Siren-Human hybrid in order to create a suitable, _living_ Vault Key is genius, and I wanted to use that to my advantage.

'Fast forward to the present and now we have Lima Base One, stationed on Elpis, a moon that had a Vault on it orbiting a planet containing now _three_ known Vaults – one of which had not been identified by any ordinary detectors. How can I _not_ gain tremendous power from this? I'm like a kid in a candy store!'

'You sicken me,' Matt degraded. Sharp raised a peculiar eyebrow at him. 'You murdered my sister; someone who was nothing but kind, caring, and sweet. She didn't do anything to anybody. She didn't deserve to die! All just to keep me like a puppet in suspension…?

'I never asked for any of this, _James!_ I didn't _want_ these powers, I didn't _want_ to become some…abomination. But you chose _for_ me, as if I'm just some _tool_ to be used and then thrown away when my purpose is fulfilled. You don't control me, commander. Clearly, though, you were programmed without morals. Do I have to add the word "kindness" into your vocabulary?'

'What are you going to do, _Matt?'_ James derided aggressively. 'You and your stupid morals prevent you from doing what's logical. You don't see how useless they are? All they do is distract you from doing what's advantageous, in favour in doing what you believe is right! It's an albatross around your neck: you don't need it!'

'I think you should watch what you say,' Maya interjected forebodingly.

'And why is that?' Sharp wondered sardonically.

'Rule Number One of fighting Matt Rye the Anomaly,' the Siren replied. ' _Don't piss him off.'_

'Please, as if he's going to do anything,' the commander cockily replied. 'Now, Mr Rye, do what I want' – he pulled out another handgun and pointed it at Gaige – 'or she gets it! What's it gonna be? You or your girlfriend?'

With most of the guns pointed on her, Gaige knew it was pointless to pull out hers and fire. If the Mechromancer killed Commander Sharp, she'd be riddled with bullets. While the girl didn't thoroughly enjoy the concept of dying, she had to look at the greater good here. Matt handing himself over to Gemini would be catastrophic, to say the least, since they'd be able to open the Vault. And then Gemini would become unimaginably more powerful and then they would orchestrate the immediate takeover of the whole galaxy, which would be very, very bad. Not to mention they'd probably execute Matt after he'd suited his role.

It was one life to save trillions.

'Don't hand yourself in, Matt!' The Vault Hunter told him. He looked at her, horrified. 'It's OK! If you give yourself up then it's game over! If you let me go, you could win. It's like when you sacrifice a member in your party to do enough damage to the boss and achieve victory!'

The Anomaly almost smiled at her avid use of video game comparisons, but he was far too focussed on how his girlfriend was less than an inch away from death.

He didn't budge, which allowed Sharp to make his mind up very quickly.

'Well then,' the commander addressed insouciantly. 'I guess you've made your choice.'

He stepped back and pulled the trigger.

* * *

 **Yes, another cliff-hanger. I'm so evil.**

 **The little back and forth between Sharp and Matt I feel really told you about how the commander thinks. It's not like he doesn't realise people think what he does is wrong, it's just that Sharp accepted a long time ago that morals must be compromise to achieve victory, and that doing what's visibly wrong can result in a better outcome. He acted on that a while ago, so he's long since stopped caring about doing wrong.**

 **The next chapter will wrap up this story line and it will be seguing onto the final plot line: the Vault.**

 **The Vault is located somewhere between the Highlands, Lynchwood and the Dust. Its exact location** ** _does_** **matter, but that probably won't be until the sequel.**

 **See you in the next chapter!**

* * *

 **P.S.: Just did some MASSIVE edits to this chapter to fix up the grammar and one plot hole I found. I had to change the bit about when the Vault opens, which meant I then had to change some of it as it was mentioned in Deathmark (Chapter 25)**


	29. Execute

**I return! Another chapter! And we're getting closer to the end! But should Matt kill Sharp for what he's done? It's certainly an enigma that's been plaguing him ever since they first came up with the original place to save Gaige, so it's nice finally to bring it to its climax. Hopefully, the chapter title is not too ominous.**

 **Anyways, I won't ramble. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Nine: Execute**

* * *

Time seemed to stop.

 _'_ _NO!'_ Matt cried, moving out his hand as it crackled with red and black lightning. His eyes closed shut in fear, waiting for the sound of the bullet firing and the subsequent slump to the ground.

It never came.

Slowly, but surely, the Anomaly opened his eyes to survey the scene before him. He had expected to see Sharp walking away triumphantly, leaving a very dead Gaige on the cold metal floor. He had expected to see her in a puddle of blood, with eyes so frighteningly lifeless, and skin jarringly pale, and muscles weaker than a twig.

What the Vault Hunter had _not_ expected was something so hopeful. Instead of a gruesome sight, he saw the _beginnings_ of a gruesome sight.

Commander Sharp stood frozen in front of Gaige, his arm straightened out to her. The gun he had was still in his hand, with his finger firmly on the trigger. Exploding out of the nozzle was a horde of shrapnel, flowing out the sides. The bullet had left the chamber and was midway through the air on its way to Gaige.

Gaige herself stood equally still, remarkably calm at was supposed to be her incoming doom. His friends were much more distressed than she was – which Matt found largely unsurprising.

Time had stopped.

Matt was left gobsmacked at the occurrence. He had only stopped time _once_ before – and had _no_ idea how to do it again. Yet, now he had. Better yet this time, the Vault Hunter was feeling much less mounting fatigue, which meant that he could keep this up for longer.

Undoubtedly, this was a benign thing. Maybe even divine intervention. Certainly, it was fortuitous that he was able to do it at the right time. This was something he had no control over, after all, it just happened when it happened – but it meant that he could save Gaige.

Quickly, the Anomaly moved Gaige out of the way of the bullet, shuffling her currently weightless form and planting her on the ground. Gravity got really weird when time stopped. Matt could defy it based on what he touched, but as soon as he let go, it would return to the state it was in when time had initially stopped – if it was in the air, it would stay in the air; if it was on the ground, it would stay on the ground. Time also seemed to progress for inorganic objects that Matt touched, whilst organic objects remained frozen. Very strange indeed.

Matt then redirected Sharp's bullet to hit the computer control panel on the wall, along with the dangerous shrapnel. Following that, he snatched the man's pistol out of his hand, took out the mag inside, and threw it away to the ground.

Speeding up time ever so slightly, Matt moved through the crowd and threw them through the air. The force at which he hit them was incalculable, but the force would likely kill them or very, very badly hurt them. Once the soldiers were disposed of, the Vault Hunter made his way to Commander James Sharp.

He threw him against the wall, as time began to resume properly. The man collided with it forcefully, so hard it nearly knocked him out. However, Sharp managed to maintain consciousness. In response, Matt ran up to him and put him in a headlock.

From the commander's perspective, he had no idea what had just happened. One second, he was pointing a gun at Gaige, and had pulled down the trigger; the next, Matt had outwitted him and gained the upper hand, putting him in a tight headlock, which he tried so desperately to wriggle out of. He couldn't.

'You think I _won't_ kill you, huh?!' The Anomaly threatened bitterly, pulling out his Jakobs Maggie and tightly pressing it against the man's temple. He didn't pull the trigger yet, since he wanted to use this as an example.

'Neat trick you've got there,' Sharp mockingly complimented him, somehow remaining remarkably calm despite the fact that his entire squadron had just been wiped. 'What _was_ that, exactly? Did you stop time? _Impressive.'_

'Shut up! I swear to God I'll kill you!' The Vault Hunter hissed.

' _Do it,_ Matt!' The commander taunted. 'It makes sense, right? I'm your enemy! I killed your sister, I deserve it! It's mere comeuppance; it's execution! Why don't you just strike me down now! You'd _never_ have to deal with me again!'

'…'

'C'mon! It's easy. Or have you forgotten how to _kill?'_

There was about a minute of fervent thought about the room before a decision was made. Matt looked towards Gaige and Aurora, their eyes telling him not to do it. The tears were genuine, as was their actual shock at what had just happened over the last thirty seconds.

Always the revolving question: was killing Commander Sharp justified? The thought alone was actually killing _him_ now, instead. He didn't kill people who didn't deserve it. He didn't kill innocent people. But Sharp _did_ deserve it. But Sharp _wasn't_ innocent. Matt was already a killer, yes, however, he had only killed bandits, volatile creatures, and some Gemini soldiers – which already he'd come to regret. No one _huge._ Sure, Handsome Jack was dead, at the hands of Lilith, but Jack was much, _much_ worse than Commander James Sharp.

 _OK, let's weigh the options,_ Matt decided. _If I kill him, then that slices the head off of the snake. Gemini would become unstable on Elpis without a leader, and there would be a while before it goes back to normal. In that time interval, Lima Base One, Two and Three could easily fall into disrepair. That would significantly hamper Gemini's possibility of taking over the galaxy, which could give the Crimson Raiders time to prepare and prevent it from ever happening. Meanwhile, with him dead, Hyperion would likely be less friendly with Gemini, since Sharp is an important liaison between them. Which means the corporations wouldn't work as well together, thusly making it easier to destroy both of them and eliminate their control and influence over Pandora._

 _On the other hand, if I leave Sharp alive, then I can use his army for later. No doubt, the Vault would be easier to take down with an entire army behind my back. Then, I'd have to prevent anyone from getting the technology inside. That'd be difficult, but possible. Besides, with the vision of the Vault I had, I'm gonna need all the help I can get. Furthermore, Sharp knows things. Lots of things that only he or Director McCain knows. That's a resource. Samael is completely out of reach, but Commander Sharp isn't. Kill him now and that means he's out of reach too, unnecessarily creating further problems._

 _Do the pros outweigh the cons...or is it vice versa? Kill, or no kill? It's a point blanc decision, between two absolutes. Such a simple choice can affect everything. Not an easy one, though. It could be really advantageous to kill Sharp. However, I'm not Caine. I'm not a ruthless killer. If I kill Sharp, then that could start my path on to becoming like Handsome Jack._

Matt dropped the gun on the ground, and it soon dedigistructed back into his ECHO storage unit. The Anomaly let go of his hold on Commander Sharp and kicked him to the ground.

Commander Sharp stumbled as he tried to get back up off the ground. The hold had bruised his neck a little and the subsequent fall elicited blood from his nose to seep out. When he finally did get back up, he was furious.

'COWARD…! Why didn't you shoot me! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO IT?!'

'I'm not Handsome Jack,' the Vault Hunter cited. He leaned in close, whispering his next few words. "Mark my words: I will not go gently into that good night. I will meet you at the opening. I will meet you at the ascension, where good and evil lay end to end. Heed me, commander, the moment is coming." Matt punched his former superior in the face, knocking him out. His friends looked on at him proudly, and he smiled back happily. 'Come on, let's get out of here.'

* * *

It had been at least an hour and a half when they finally were to set off in the ships. It had been…interesting, escaping from Lima Base One. Many of the braver ones, mainly Conquistadors, had attempted to prevent their departure, but had failed. The Vault Hunter had ended up running out of Lima Base One, and it certainly wasn't fun considering that the energy gate was still present and still just as difficult to pass. Luckily, they succeeded and continued running out to the ships until they knew they were out LB1's targeting range.

Both jump-ships successfully fit one extra crew member in each of them, and there was a spare seat in both of them. Unfortunately, Matt's jump-ship, the one Gaige elected to fly in, had a spare seat that was stuck on the tram-like suspender line and could not be pulled out from its storage space. So, the Mechromancer ultimately decided to double up a seat with Matt.

'Er…Gaige?' The Anomaly called nervously.

'Yeah?' She prompted.

'Are you sure this entirely appropriate?' Gaige had positioned her legs across Matt's legs, perpendicularly, forming sort of a cross between them. She had fit herself behind the X seatbelt, with an arm behind her boyfriend's neck. 'Or particularly, um, _safe?'_

'Bah, it'll be fine!' She shook off, waving her hand dismissively. The girl nestled her head down on his shoulder.

'Are you sure about that?'

'The seatbelts are fairly tight.'

'That's probably because it has two people to cover instead of one!'

'You know, you might be on to something there.'

'Really? You don't say…?'

'Well, I _did_ say I was perceptive.'

'You were easily manipulated by Caine.'

'…'

'Uh huh, that's what I thought.'

'…Shut up.'

The playful banter between them was either enjoyable to listen to or downright cringy. If you were Aurora, it was definitely cringy. While the Revolverslinger had accepted their relationship, it didn't mean it was awkward when they acted so…lovey-dovey towards each other. Considering she was still in love with Matt, it was not too fun to listen to. Thankfully, she was on the _other_ jump-ship; therefore, the young woman wouldn't have to see it before her eyes, at the very least.

Aurora's professionalism, as usual, was struggling to keep her from intervening. She found the Mechromancer's exceedingly ebullient behaviour incredibly annoying. Luckily, the Vault Hunter was actually willing to let this one slide, since the two _lovebirds_ had been separated for a while: during which time, Gaige was tortured. Really, it was no surprise they wanted to spend some time with each other almost immediately.

If she was going to be perfectly honest, the Revolverslinger found it astonishing – or rather, _confusing_ – that the young girl was not visibly psychologically affected, no doubt, by what were intense torture sessions. Looking closely, Aurora could the marks, nicks, and scars across her flesh where she'd been brutally persecuted. Matt didn't seem too bothered over the ECHO. Maybe, he didn't notice.

 _Maybe,_ he was _used_ to seeing scars.

The engines roared to life on the jump-ships, and the loud billowing of air made Aurora wince and pay more attention to her surroundings. Quickly, the ships shot off towards Pandora, and far away from Lima Base One. Far from Commander James Nathaniel Sharp.

Today had been rough. So had yesterday. And the day before that. Matt's entire life had been rough. His childhood wasn't ideal, and involved a lot of fear and hiding in bomb shelters. Being a soldier for the Krolantian Military Order had also been rough. Training aside, the actual conflicts were something else. A lot of near-death experiences, and a lot of times when he thought he'd have to sacrifice. Add that to the fact that he was one of the youngest ever recruits and it made every mission feel like suicide.

The KMO was a struggling legion, so a lot of assignments went south very quickly, and the full-scale battles took extreme precision to win. Hi-tech weaponry on both sides always meant there was a high possibility of a stalemate. A stalemate was a compromise, and the KMO always advised against it, and instead coined the latter term to convince them to fight until their last dying breath: because it was "right".

After the KMO was Gemini. His military experience made him a perfect potential for Gemini to shape. His time at the company was not something he didn't necessarily talk about. Wholly, it was difficult. It was hard keeping up even with the lesser veterans, giving his non-augmented state at the time, nevertheless, he succeeded. When he became a Vault Hunter, the best thing he could bring was exceptionally fast thinking, but no superhuman abilities. That made it very difficult to compare to the Vault Hunter regiment he was assigned to; Matt was, after all, in a group with people who could fire light, aim with one-hundred percent accuracy, enhance physical capabilities beyond natural capacity, fire air explosions and create digital holograms.

Originally, it was the fact that he seemed average whilst everyone else was exceptional was why he took the name Anomaly.

It was only with his Chronokinesis that the Anomaly really shot up the leaderboard. The ability to slow time, coupled with the ability to think fast already, made him rather formidable. Against some of the Vault Hunters he had not met, even then Matt was nearly incomparable. That was why Commander Sharp was initially so fond of him. Now, it was a different story.

Even with years of hardship, it was reasonably difficult for Matt to comprehend Gaige's torture. The Anomaly had not been tortured before, because he was always too forward-thinking to get himself in such situations, to begin with. Now, the Mechromancer went away with quite a few scars – painfully reminding him of his own. They weren't extensive, but someone like her didn't deserve to get any to begin with. Apart from, maybe, the odd scar from a mishap during her mechanics.

Whether there were lasting psychological issues or effects on her, he didn't know. She was hard to read; since the Vault Hunter had spent a long time masking her inner torment behind humour and obtuseness, it was never too clear what she was thinking. While the latter behaviour was very enjoyable and quite adorable, it wouldn't be acceptable for her health.

Right now, the Mechromancer appeared perfectly fine, but he would have to inspect her mental health once they had gotten off the ship and back on the ground of Sanctuary.

'So, um, Matt,' Maya called.

'What is it, Maya?' The Anomaly responded earnestly.

'Was it true that you stopped time back there?' The Siren wondered, as his teammates all suddenly sat up at that question. It appeared this was something that was on all their minds.

'Yes,' he answered. 'But it was entirely sporadic. It's not something I can control. Honestly, anything could've happened in that instant, it just turned out that I stopped time. Even now, I'm not entirely certain how to control it – it's pretty much just instinct.'

'Well, I think Gaige would be happy about your "instinct" then,' Axton supplemented, smiling in a humourful way. She nodded to his statement.

'Hey, Matt?' Gaige asked him nervously.

'Yeah?' He prompted.

'What did you say to Commander Sharp, you know, just before you knocked him out?'

Good question. Certainly, it wasn't an easy one to answer. His Siren instincts had filled his mind and wrote out the words for him. There was a further mentioning of his ascension, and, apparently, a time when morality is questioned. Ascension into what, or whose morals would be probed, was not entirely clear. However, Matt couldn't tell them that. That made no sense, and there was a high possibility that they would take this to be some sort of prognosis for the future.

'I told him that the Vault was opening soon,' the Vault Hunter finally enlightened her. 'And that _I_ am at the epicentre.'

'Do you think that's a smart thing to tell him?' Lilith disagreed. 'Wouldn't that make him _more_ determined than he is now?'

'It's nothing he didn't already know. He knows that I will open the Vault soon, and the fact that he no longer has me to do it _for him,_ he's going to be more determined anyway.'

'However, having an entire legion to support while we try to kill the Vault Monster would be incredibly useful,' the red-headed Siren pointed out.

'I know,' Matt reassured. 'It'd go a long way to preventing that vision of the future I had.'

' _Real_ Vault Hunters hunt Vaults no matter what. It _is_ their profession,' Gaige commented with a hint of sorrow. The tone was jarringly sombre. The Anomaly looked at her perturbingly and saw her solemn disposition.

'You OK, Gaige?' He queried, concerned. Once she realized he'd picked up on her behaviour, the Mechromancer switched to a more bubbly appearance, adopting an ear-to-ear smile.

'Me? I'm right as rain!' She lied, clearly not convincing Matt.

 _Liar…_ He thought.

Ultimately, though, the Vault Hunter knew it was better to question her when they had returned and were in a company that was more private. However, the fact that the Mechromancer was unwilling to talk about it meant two, rather similar things: she was not comfortable talking about it with everyone, or not comfortable about it at all. Either possibility was worrying, but Matt was banking on her faith in her to tell him what was wrong. If what was wrong wasn't already obvious, that is.

As they flew through the calm, the Anomaly's thought process wandered over to the Vault. He had not looked through the files on his ECHOear just yet, although a quick scan revealed the file that bore the location of the Vault itself. Thankfully, that ensured the existence of it, to begin with, however, Matt could not help but suppose Commander Sharp intended for him to get the location some way or another.

Commander Sharp had calculated the circumstances of their escape attempt down the last detail; there was no way he could think that, once Matt realized he knew where the Vault was, he'd try – and succeed – to abscond with that information. While he did not account for Gaige's behaviour being an outstanding act and not real, Sharp would've been smart about it, enough to think there was a possibility his machine plan would fail.

The Vault Hunter's own desperation to save Gaige blinded him to the fact that he might be running right into a trap. It should have been obvious the beginning: the lack of alertness from Lima Base One; the effortlessness in beating their security access code failsafes; the lack of cameras about the place; the peculiarity in that there was only _one_ guard, apparently, on shift for that night on the guard tower; the inconsideration of C-Digistructors and Invisibility Capacitors; all of it. Yet, Matt failed to see even the most obvious of them. He needed to think more robotically.

Execution of that particular task would not be easy. Matt had to think logically, but his emotions and morality came into play often. _Far_ too often. He refused to execute Commander Sharp, for reasons the Anomaly would insist were logical thoughts, although, he knew that most of the thinking in that choice was governed by emotion.

Not every choice was going to please everybody. Situations rarely tended towards that. Most times, no matter what you did, _someone_ was going to upset, and someone was going to question you. It was uncommon that it was a black and white decision between what was good and what was wrong. As Matt no doubt knew, it was choosing the lesser of two evils – deciding which one would theoretically produce a better outcome, except that was "better" did not mean just advantageous, but slightly less evil and morally more right. You can't save everybody, nor can you please everybody. Considering _who_ to please, now that was an extreme difficulty.

Such is the terror of human morality. Of humanity, in general. Being stuck between a rock and a hard place, and not being able to find solace.

One thing that, even the most corrupt, human beings were afraid of was confronting who you are. How evil, good, or neutral you are.

Gaige was scared to see that, ever since Marcie. Matt had spent a long time running away from that, ever since he first joined up with the KMO. Maya did not want to consider that, because of the monks' manipulations and moral deviations. Lilith had seen that; Roland's death and her subsequent lashing out of it had taught her to remain level-headed and to keep your morals in check. Everyone had, at least once, thought about what side they're really on.

 _Maybe it's time to stop running,_ the Vault Hunter considered.

This Vault wasn't going to hunt itself. It _needed_ Matt to open. The prisoner inside required him to be set free, but a rampaging monster like that was certainly never going to achieve it. After months, what felt like years, he'd finally found it: the most elusive Vault on Pandora. And Matt had the powers to achieve his goals and was aware of the potential cost. Gemini had known where the Vault was for God knows how long, which maybe wasn't surprising due to their conniving, calculating approach – this, though, was a blessing in disguise.

An uncanny valley was on its way. A stream of thought carried through.

* * *

Commander Sharp was losing respect. There was no avoiding that following the fiasco that had been dubbed an "Anomalous Event".

Basically, anything that involved Mr Rye, or followed circumstances pertaining to Mr Rye, was called that. This was the first to be named, but not the first ever.

Due to his utter failure, and the Anomaly's conversation with Sharp, people were beginning to question him. No one knew that he had sent the assassin to kill the young man's sister, and many "were not informed" of the Hyperion-Gemini partnership. By "not informed", he, of course, meant that they didn't know and were intentionally not told. Above all else, his humane aspects were doubted; whether or not he would be willing to do anything to achieve the task he was assigned, and if that meant murdering people just to motivate others.

 _"_ _I didn't want to become some…abomination. But you chose for me, as if I'm just some tool to be used and then thrown away when my purpose is fulfilled."_

Everyone in Lima Base One heard that. While the commander was calm and collected while he spoke, Sharp knew that by revealing his involvement in Amelia's death would be tightening the noose around his neck. He was expecting Matt to shoot him, not so he would not have to confront it, but also so that people would not question his motives because he would've been _right._ Unfortunately, Commander's Sharp gamble backfired, and now people were sympathising with the Anomaly.

Luckily, the other Vault Hunters in his regiment were away on a mission during their confrontation, so the more righteous of the group, like Duke, would not be any more swayed to the other side than they already had. Meanwhile, the other regiments were at the CCG, and nowhere near LB1 to catch the interplanetary – but not intergalactic – broadcast.

Capricorn Central Galactica also happened to be much more secure than Lima Base One could ever hope to be. The others regiments would definitely not be affected whilst they complete their commissions at the CCG.

Perturbingly, it would not be long before employees would lose complete faith in their commander and join up with the Crimson Raiders. Such an eventuality was concerning because those who worked for him knew quite a lot about his ambitions, plans, and strategies, and Matt having that knowledge at his disposal would be dangerous.

Even among his allies, Matt was admired. With a legion of soldiers and scientists, the Anomaly would be revered as a god. A false god.

Centring more on himself, though, if Lima Base One's military force was exponentially and dramatically drained, then Commander Sharp would have to take the brunt of the blame. It would all come crashing down on him. Once Director McCain found out about his major fuck-up, Sharp would be next on the chopping block. He'd be axed.

There was a point in time in which Sharp believed something like would never happen. There was an instant, not too long ago, where the commander could claim he was comfortable in his position as the leader of Gemini's military force and his stationing at the base on Elpis. Now, the commander wasn't so sure.

Abruptly, his ECHO vibrated and gave off a ringtone. His HUD told him that he was getting a call from Samael McCain. Oh boy, this was not going to be good. The commander reluctantly answered the call and the voice of McCain voiced through the ECHOnet.

'The news about the Lima Base One fiasco has reached the CCG, commander,' the director revealed. 'While we do not have the security footage of the event, the general information on the situation has since been filed and documented.'

'I suspected it would not take long for you to hear about it,' Sharp replied calmly.

'You've failed me, James. Your plan was to get Matt to use your machine to charge an artificial Vault Key. Instead, your invention was destroyed. This is very disheartening, commander.'

'It's not over.'

'From Matt's disposition, it seems so,' Samael pointed out. 'No one quite knows what words were thrown here at Capricorn Central Galactica, but I'm sure people at Lima Base One do. It seems that most of your taskforce has lost faith in you. I wonder: why is that?' Sharp knew he could not simply reply honestly, and tell him how and why everyone was questioning him.

'Simply because I failed on two accounts. They seem to be considering I am unfit for this assignment.'

'I hope that's all it is.'

'Sir… _Samael,_ I know it may seem like a lot to ask, but have some faith. I may have failed Plan A and B, but it's not unreasonable to think I have a Plan C.'

'James, I want to see results. And _fast._ If not, I _will_ have to re-station you.' Director McCain hung up on the call. The man was losing faith in his friend, much like everyone else. If he did not succeed, failing as he had before, then the man would be in a lot of hot water. The loss would be more devastating than it had been before.

After all, Sharp had a reputation to uphold. He had to appear as intelligent, cunning, and above all else, successful. Simply put: the man could not afford to lose that image. Not when he took so long building it up in the first place. If the leader played his cards right, it may have been possible to keep his employees under his control and not have them straddle the line between Gemini and the Crimson Raiders.

Despite all that, Commander Sharp actually wasn't all that worried. He had back-up plans for back-up plans. Plans A through F. While Sharp had failed to corrupt Mr Rye, his Plan C had already been implemented.

Matt would have a definite surprise when he got home.

* * *

 **OK, slightly less evil cliff-hanger this time.**

 **It seems Commander Sharp is in some hot water after his mistakes at Lima Base One. Hope you understand Matt's thoughts processes while he was debating killing Sharp, too. It's a difficult choice – since he kills all the time – but the Anomaly had to decide if it was worth it, and the Vault Hunter ultimately decided it was wasn't.**

 **As for the elephant in the room…yes, Matt stopped time again! At the moment, it's only under intense duress, such as life or death situations. His instincts kicked in and stopped time, in order to save Gaige. It gave Sharp quite a shock too.**

 **[Sidenote: it's also really fun writing the banter between Gaige and Matt. Hope it appears they have good chemistry.]**

 **And we're on to Chapter Thirty now, too! Nice! I didn't think it would get this long, but it seems like it's gonna go up to 35 chapters, including an epilogue. It might be more, might be less. We'll see.**


	30. The Better Half

**Woohoo! Thirtieth chapter down! This one took a while, and it was hard to keep on track, but I managed to write some stuff I've been dreaming up for a good while. Namely, a fight I've wanted to write ever since I introduced the first few OCs.**

 **Also, I'm going to be tying up a loose end that I have kept open for** ** _ages_** **now that I need properly to address. It'll be a call-back to a previous chapter, and trust me; you'll know it when you see it.**

 **Now, onto the continuation…**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirty: The Better Half**

* * *

He was falling through a dark abyss, surrounded by nothing but absolute darkness. There wasn't even a speck of light, not even a single photon that dared to cross through the domain of germinating blackness. The dark was like a disease, an infestation, which crawled into every orifice, seeping through the cracks.

Every single modicum oozed iniquity. Some twisted corruption of the light, it was. In this domain, the dark embodied ubiquity, a stark contrast to a world of light. Every being, somewhere into the expansive universe, had an innate fear of the darkness – a phobia of what was not really there, but was somehow there still. With the blackness everywhere but your field of vision, that was not irrational.

The young man was falling, descending further into this lifeless void, but there was no evidence of the bottom. Falling into what, exactly? Nothingness, that's what.

Matt didn't know where he was going. One second he was on the jump-ship, the next, he was here. Was he dreaming? No one ever remembers _when_ they fall asleep, that is. Except, this dream felt so real.

Finally, the descent halted, and the next thing the Anomaly knew, he was lying flat on his back. He was lolling on some sheet of glass, or something like that, since it was transparent. Being in complete darkness, it didn't really reflect light. The only light there seemed to be there to present Matt's appearance, defying darkness. The Vault Hunter could see his own limbs, but nothing else.

'Where am I?' He inquired out loud, to no one in particular. If the young man was alone, then he supposed it would not matter if he spoke out.

Except, Matt _wasn't_ alone.

'You're in the dream,' a familiar voice called out. He spun around and saw her, clear as day. Amelia.

'Amy…'

'Yes.'

'I-I don't understand,' the Anomaly admitted.

'You're in the dream,' his sister cryptically explained.

'In _a_ dream…?' Matt confusingly corrected.

' _The_ dream,' she insisted, apparently somewhat agitated that he would correct her. 'I apologise, but it's not easy contacting you these days.'

'So you're really alive…' The Vault Hunter realised, eyes widening, awaiting her response. Amelia shook her head.

'No. I am still dead. My body is, at least.'

'What…how…?' Matt questioned, taking time to get a hold of himself.

'I'm here to warn you about your actions henceforth. Be very careful with the Vault. It gives off an unparalleled energy signature compared to other Vaults. You do not know what may be inside.'

'Do you?'

'No.'

'Why couldn't you have told me this sooner?' He complained. 'There were times when you could communicate.'

'Only to send shortwave messages. Nothing too complex. Then Gaige came along and –'

'What have you been doing, messing around with Gaige's head?' The Vault Hunter angrily interrupted.

'It was the only way, Matt. I couldn't access you anymore. Her mind weakened through torture and allowed me to pass through the threshold and communicate. With your hearts intertwined, it allowed me to access you. I suspect this won't last long, however.'

'Souls don't have telepathy.'

'I am not a normal soul, Matt.'

'Then who… _what_ are you?!' He demanded, slightly more livid than before. Amelia Rye tilted her head perplexedly at him, narrowing her eyes, as if trying to comprehend his fury.

'I am the infinite.'

'What the hell does that mean?'

'I am sorry, brother,' Amelia apologised contritely, genuinely looking upset. 'But that is something you must figure out on your own. In time, you will understand. That time is coming. Soon.' She paused, and jolted her head to the side, seemingly receiving new information. 'The bond is breaking. We will not last much longer. I doubt we will be able to communicate with you again.'

 _We? Who ELSE is she talking about?_

'Wait, Amelia!' She immediately resorted to her stoic look, like a robot receiving new commands. 'Tell me, in the future, is everyone going to die?' His sister raised an eyebrow at that question, ostensibly calculating and formulating an answer.

'That is for you to decide.' With that, everything went white, and Matt closed his eyes.

* * *

The Anomaly's brown-gold eyes snapped open. Looking around, he could see that he was back in the jump-ship, and were fast approaching Pandora. Gaige was still on his lap, and her head was buried comfortingly in his shoulder, fast asleep.

That was more than just a nightmare. If Amelia really _was_ communicating with him, it was definitely a cause for concern. According to her, she was unable to communicate much before, and only could while Gaige and Matt were together. However, it seemed even then she was having difficulties.

It was all too confusing. Amelia Rye was supposed to be dead, and her explanation was cryptic, at best. Maybe her soul did live on, but her character was starkly different. Frightening different. His sister still had her sweet voice, but she sounded so much colder and robotic. Where was the innocent girl who thought farts were funny?

Matt wasn't sure what she was now, but he didn't trust her. Something about her had changed, and it didn't seem good.

 _What am I saying? I shouldn't even be able to hear from her at all! How the hell could I be hearing from her?!_

To say Matt was conflicted would be an understatement. He could not decide whether to go with what he just dreamt, or to take it with a grain of salt. Except, with his Siren instincts, most dreams he had these days weren't just dreams. They were forewarnings, prognoses, and premonitions. Nothing that was mere and unimportant. He could pretend everything was fine, but things rarely were.

'Nightmare?' A voice next to his ear whispered, cautiously out of Axton's range of hearing. He looked to his side and realised Gaige had awoken, and was staring at him fearfully. Her pupils dilated in worry. The Anomaly nodded.

'Strange one, though,' Matt admitted, shaking his head at the confusing experience. 'Amelia was talking to me. Like an outright conversation with me. I couldn't get much from her, though; she only had time to warn me that the Vault we're hunting is giving off more Siren energy than normal. If I hadn't gotten mad and derailed her, then maybe –'

'You got angry over my sake, didn't you?' There was no sense of judgement or inconsideration in her voice, only acceptance. She finished her deduction with a smile, to tell him that she was not upset by it. Matt hesitantly nodded. 'Did you find out why she decided to communicate with me specifically?'

'Sort of,' he answered. 'For whatever reason, Amelia couldn't talk with me, so she went with someone I was close to. Apparently, our relationship made it easy to "connect" us. Unfortunately, her connection with me dissolved for some reason.'

'How did she do that? How would her soul still exist, and how the _hell_ can she talk to us?'

'Dunno. She just spouted some nonsense about "the infinite" and "the dream".'

'Did the same with me, too,' the Mechromancer divulged, sighing out of frustration at Amelia's complexity.

'She got really specific about it,' Matt commented, furrowing his brow. 'I corrected her and said, "a dream" and she got mad and rectified it to " _the_ dream". Like it's a place. Like it's a proper noun and I should be capitalising it…'

'Don't read too much into it,' Gaige recommended. 'I'd chock it up to her inherent weirdness.'

'I just hope that's all it is,' Matt grumbled. If only his sister had been direct, and not been so indecipherable. These times were confusing, and half the time the Anomaly wasn't sure what he was doing. If Amelia knew about the Vault, that made her a resource, something he could possibly have to his advantage. Knowing about the Vault beforehand would make it substantially easier to hunt it. Even though he knew where the Vault was, Matt was still worried.

Amelia claimed that the vision he saw would only come true if Matt decided it to be so. However, her latter cryptic comments made him more think that his actions would determine that, rather than a point blanc decision. However, there was no way he knew if that would make the outcome much less tragic. Sure, the Vault Hunter could maybe prevent himself and Gaige dying, but what about everyone else?

Definitely, the Anomaly was going to need some more time before he figured it out. Matt required more information, and the only real source was Amelia, but Amelia was gone. She claimed their connection had been severed, and that there was probably no way they could communicate again.

'Heads up people,' Axton notified, 'we're approaching Sanctuary now.' They were just passing through the top clouds of Pandora, where the troposphere began. It was like a thick fog, and they could not actually see Sanctuary just yet.

 _'_ _May…alert…all Vault Hunters…breach…'_ alerted a voice over the comms. Someone had been attempting to call them. Sanctuary's comms system was connected to the Dahl jump-ships, so once they got in range, they could hear the message. At the moment, it was cut off by static, but it left Axton very concerned indeed.

'Er…alert, this is Axton, we're just returning from our mission. Do you copy, over?'

 _'_ _We copy, Axton! Mayday, mayday! Alerting all Vault Hunters: security breach! Over!'_

'What kind of security breach?! Over!'

 _'_ _Defences are down! Repeat: defences are down! The prisoner escaped! Over!'_ Upon hearing that, Matt immediately sat up, causing Gaige to jump slightly. With the ship slowing down in its descent, he saw it safe enough to get out of his seat and get over to the comms that Axton was using.

'Did Caine escape, over?'

 _'_ _Some of his Vault Hunter buddies got the jump on us, over!'_

'We're coming in as soon as possible! Just try to keep them distracted by sending in the Raiders, over!'

 _'_ _Roger that! Over!'_ The soldier on the other end ended the communication, no doubt to assist in whatever siege had been going on while they were away.

'This is bad…' Matt grimly stated. He put two fingers up to his ECHOear and activated an ECHO call with all the Vault Hunters. 'Guys, wake up! We have a _huge_ problem! Sanctuary's under attack!' That message instantly woke them up, all with alarmed faces at the notification they just received.

Finally, Sanctuary came into sight, and it wasn't pretty. It was still very much afloat, but the shield had been shattered and smoke was steadily rising out of the debris in the stronghold. Hyperion was surprisingly not firing moonshots, which clearly told them that the corporation was not involved, and that it was Gemini-centric. It was not hard to see the warfare going on. Droves of Crimson Raiders congregated on one end of the location, setting up barricades, while a noticeable five were firing on the other end, clearly opposing them.

Even an idiot could tell it was Duke, Violet, Dan, Caine and Arcturus. They'd attacked the place while they were gone, presumably to get Caine back. An interesting choice on Sharp's behalf, it was. The commander himself had said that if he lost his fight against Matt, then Caine would be fired, yet they were trying to rescue him despite the fact he _did_ lose.

Perhaps, they just really needed him back anyway, and keeping him there was getting too dangerous. Sure, they could have traded Gaige for Caine, but Matt knew that Commander Sharp's priorities were not focussed on Caine at all. Lord knows they weren't saving him because they liked the guy. His abrasive nature and competitive, aggressive attitude was not exactly social.

Orders were orders, though. They'd likely been told to extract the Explosions Master by any means possible. And their allegiances pertained to Gemini, not their former friends Matt and Aurora.

The Anomaly knew that, even with the Sanctuary's exceptional defences, they could not hold out much longer. What pained him more, though, was that this was technically his fault. He'd roped his allies into saving Gaige, and had prioritised that over looking at the bigger picture. Matt hadn't thought he was walking into a trap, and he also had not thought it was double-edged. If the Vault Hunter were smarter, then he would've left behind one or two Vault Hunters to help hold the fort while they were away.

Except, Matt hadn't. Hadn't done this; hadn't done that.

This had become a recurring theme with the young man: not doing things he should. Undoubtedly, he had done a lot of questionably moral things before, but it was perhaps the things that he _hadn't_ done that were worse. This was a perfect example.

However, beating himself up wasn't going to help anybody. Certainly, it would not prevent Sanctuary being destroyed. Yes, it was his fault. No, he wasn't going to let Sanctuary be destroyed and have it be his fault. It was a sin that needed to be repented immediately.

'Can you accelerate?' Matt asked Axton.

'If you want to crash into Sanctuary at Mach 50, then yes.'

'Smart ass…' Matt humorously grumbled. Luckily, it would not take long before they arrived in Sanctuary anyway.

Instead of landing in the hangar, Axton decided that it would likely be a smarter choice to land on the central plaza, drop off his allies, and _then_ park in the hangar. Along with their ship still disguised, the Gemini Vault Hunters would have no idea they'd come in, and would likely have assumed that they were merely gaining reinforcements. He signalled for Zer0 to do the same over the ECHO, and instructed his teammates on his plan to get them behind enemy lines. With an exchange of nods and yeses amongst the team, Axton zoomed around Sanctuary and slowly descended on the plaza next to Scooter's garage.

Matt and Gaige were the first to jump out of their respective ship, while Aurora and Mordecai were the first out of theirs. The other Vault Hunters followed. It was going to be hard to keep Krieg quiet, but hopefully, his ulterior voice would talk some sense into him. After all, the last time that Matt had the jump on Caine, it had worked incredibly well for him, and he was just on his own that time. With his friends at his back, it would be a lot easier. _And_ civilians had been evacuated to the underground shelter, so there was no worry about them, either.

The Crimson Raiders were on the other side of Sanctuary, having set up borders near Marcus's guns and Crimson Raider HQ. Caine's group were on their side of the battlefield, but had not noticed them as of yet. Certainly, that was an excellent advantage.

Matt crept up the steps, carefully controlling the group following him while simultaneously maintaining silence. After all, the Anomaly was not certain how close Caine and his group were, so if he was quieter he could easily determine where they were exactly without being caught. He had an idea, at least, since the Vault Hunter could hear the yells and commands from Crimson Raider soldiers and the subsequent but occasional yells from Caine's side. Apart from that, it wasn't all too clear.

Once Matt got to the top of the stairs, he could see the Gemini Vault Hunters. Caine was throwing his genetically modified explosions, with varying intensity; Dan was sending physical holographic swords like javelins; Duke was focussing his sniper a little further away, and intermittently scoring a fatal hit on one of them; Violet was throwing inaccurate beams of light that singed holes in surfaces; meanwhile, Arcturus was manipulating wind through the air, making it harder for the Crimson Raiders – and inadvertently, his teammate Duke – to hit them back. The team was powerful, but not completely coordinated.

Gaige got shivers when she saw Violet, still using her fiendish light powers, which pertained specifically to her wretched race. Lasting psychological issues, Matt assumed. He was used to that. And it annoyed him that Gemini had had the audacity to do that to someone he cared so much about.

Sharply, the Anomaly held a fist up to his friends to warn them that they should freeze.

'Zer0, Mordecai: stay back here and see if you can pick off Duke and Arcturus, not that they'll be easy targets. You incapacitate them, and their defences will go down. Brick, Sal: I want you to target Violet. She's not very smart, and not very strong, so you should be able to overpower her, however, be sure to stay out of the way of her beams. Maya and Axton: focus on Dan. Lil, Gaige, 'Ora: you and I are going after their powerhouse, Caine. Everyone got it?' Axton had returned, luckily, to hear this.

There were unanimous nods about them in response. His non-proclaimed leadership role had expertly been demonstrated.

Matt activated his Chronokinesis, and moved Gaige and Aurora by the arms closer to them, before returning and bringing Lilith. The others (excluding the two snipers) followed a few seconds after. Once he got closer to him, the Anomaly could not resist his anger and blindsided Caine. Without much thought, he barged through him and punched him through a wall. Gaige quickly digistructed Deathtrap.

'Where the hell did you come from?' Dan exclaimed in disbelief, annoyed that he was being pulled away from showing off his abilities.

'In case, you're forgetting: this is _our_ turf,' Maya reminded him, before greeting him with a blow to the nose. Axton instantly threw down his turret, generating a shield around the two Vault Hunters.

'You broke my nose!' The Digi-gram complained, wiping the blood seeping from his nostrils begrudgingly.

'Idiot,' Axton muttered under his breath, aiming and shooting with his Sawbar.

'Hmm…' Duke spoke absentmindedly, aiming his sniper at Zer0, carefully focussing his shot. Before he could fire, Zer0 shot first. The bullet flew towards him quicker than the Fable could think, and it was expertly aimed to shoot through the sniper's scope, damaging the weapon. The bullet also caused significant damage to his shield. Unfazed, Duke threw down the sniper and took out some sort of custom pistol and aiming with that instead.

Zer0 entered Deception and dodged the bullet, meanwhile Mordecai moved behind the spire for cover. However, the Fable was able to get a beat on the Assassin and shot down his invisibility. Apparently unsurprised, Zer0 shot the gun out of his foe's hand and clocked him on the side of the head with his sword. The Gemini Vault Hunter fell to the ground.

Dan yelled in annoyance at his ally's defeat, and threw a few holographic bullets at Axton's shield, deactivating it. Axton received a few burns on his body before Maya was able to force the Digi-gram into her Phaselock bubble.

'Put me down from here!' The Vault Hunter demanded, not enjoying the claustrophobic sensation it was giving him. He was flailing and fidgeting his limbs in a vain attempt to escape from the bubble.

'Gladly,' Maya snidely responded. She raised her arm, elevating the bubble even higher and then evaporating it. Daniel fell, but used his holograms to slow his descent. He was met with Axton, who smacked him around the head with his gun and knocked him out.

Salvador and Brick charged Violet Parker, who did not feel too threatened by the duo. She used her light powers to produce a bright white flash that temporarily blinded them and allowed her to kick the Gunzerker away. The Light Bender attempted to do the same to Brick; however, she was met with an angry Berserker as the force barely affected her enemy. He grabbed her leg and slammed her into the wall beside him. She slumped down in a daze.

Arcturus reacted fast, and threw wind funnels at Matt, Aurora and Gaige, whom barely dodged. He was about to throw another, but his hands were pierced with sniper bullets from Mordecai. Attack impeded, Arcturus took out a conventional gun, hid behind cover, and fired at the Hunter.

With no protection, the Gemini Vault Hunters were more open to attack from the Crimson Raiders. They quickly gained the upper hand.

Caine rose from the hole in the wall and glowered furiously at the Anomaly and his two accomplices. Using his air pockets to propel himself out, he generated powerful shock-waves, which almost knocked everyone in Sanctuary to their feet. Explosions were thrown the Anomaly's way, but he moved out of the way with his Chronokinesis, and came close for a strike that Caine quickly dodged. Matt responded with another attack, this time for his rival's stomach, but the Vault Hunter grabbed his hand and held it mere inches from his stomach.

'I should've known Sharp would send someone after you while I was gone,' Matt commented grudgingly.

'Yeah, except you were too roped up in your _fabulous_ rescue attempt,' Caine chastised.

'I'll have you know it was successful _despite_ the fact it was a trap!' Matt countered triumphantly. He kicked his fellow Vault Hunter back and Aurora shot his palm. Caine reacted and sent out a large explosion that threw them back. Gaige dedigistructed Deathtrap before it could be affected by the shock-wave. Matt and Aurora were thrown back, but got back up quickly.

The Anomaly slowed time long enough for him knock Caine off his feet. He placed him in a tight headlock that the Explosions Master struggled out of.

'I can tell you haven't thought this through,' the Vault Hunter told Caine. Pressuring down on his foe's forearm, Caine tried to reply.

'What the hell are you talking about? I've been planning my escape for days now!' He argued.

'OK, so you escape. Then what?' Matt proposed. 'You can't go back to Gemini. In case you've forgotten, Sharp fired you because you could not defeat me. Remember?'

 _'_ _ALERT: IF YOU DO NOT BRING HIM IN, MR BROOKE, YOU WILL BE DISCHARGED FROM THE CORPORATION EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.'_ **(A/N: From Chapter Fifteen,** ** _Forbearance._** **)**

Commander Sharp did indeed say that. And Sharp wasn't one to kid. Caine had been more focussed on his entrapment than what his superior had declared through the announcement function of the Taurus spaceship. Now that it had been brought back up, it was clear that he couldn't go back to Gemini when Sharp had made the – what the Vault Hunter arrogantly believed to be – fatal error of threatening to fire him.

It was clear that Caine's purpose was unclear. Currently, he was at the mercy of the person he despised the most. What he disliked the most about Matt was his sense of worth. To him, the Anomaly had always been someone else; someone in the way of his goal to achieve utter superiority. However, his rival had always been standing in his way and acting as if he had some sort of claim to fame in life. Constantly, Caine was wondering why the Vault Hunter could not just go away. Of course, Aurora got in the way too, but Matt stepped it up to another level.

Truthfully, though, the only way he was going to able to get to the Vault now was to do something he really didn't want to do. Caine was going to have to… _help_ Matt in his escapade to take down the same Vault.

'For once, you've actually said something mildly intelligent,' the Explosions Master grumbled. Matt raised an eyebrow, loosening his grip for a second, which allowed Caine to elbow him in the stomach and break out of the headlock. He stood parallel to him.

'You're on your own, Caine,' Matt pointed out, as Axton and Maya dragged Arcturus's unconscious body onto the scene and dropped him down on the ground. 'You're not killing me, or anyone here.'

Caine stepped back carefully, and dropped his weapon. Once it hit the ground, it dedigistructed back into his ECHO.

'I accept.'

'What?'

'I'll join you.'

Those three words brought more shock to Matt than anything over the past few days had. That included Gaige's kidnapping and the revelation that he'd walked into a trap. This was what was supposed to happen. Caine was _supposed_ to join them. His vision had foretold such an event, although it initially wasn't clear how it came to happen.

The Anomaly couldn't actually tell how many panicked breaths he kept taking, or how wide and stunned his eyes were.

If Caine was joining them, it potentially meant that he had not prevented the apparent prophecy from coming to be. Quite possibly, that future could still be in danger of coming to fruition. So how could he accept this proposal?

On the other hand, in that very same dream, the Vault Hunter was a _massive_ help in defeating the still mysterious Vault Monster residing within. Since this Vault Monster singlehandedly killed almost all of his Vault Hunter allies, it was slim pickings with who could actually provide aid in the fight. With someone who could do that falling right into his hands, how stupid would he be to turn it down? Whilst Matt didn't trust Caine, and he knew that the man would betray them as shown in the vision, the Anomaly had little choice. At least up until the Vault Monster was destroyed, the ex-Gemini Vault Hunter could be an asset and extremely useful.

It wasn't like he was ever going to have such an option arise again.

Carefully, he lowered his breathing and centred on a very tense Caine Brooke. He nodded to Gaige to tell her he was alright, and then opened his mouth to speak.

'OK. You can join,' the Vault Hunter accepted. There was immediate outrage from his peers, but he precisely ignored them. 'But remember: you're at my mercy. You even _think_ about betraying us, and I won't hesitate to kill you.'

' _Fine,'_ he accepted begrudgingly. 'Just don't think this makes us friends.'

'Wouldn't dream of it.' The Anomaly pointed his hand towards the Crimson Raiders that were still behind cover and in HQ, and ordered them to come out. They slowly wandered out of their positions to congregate in the main area of Sanctuary. There weren't many casualties, but there were several angry glares directed towards Caine.

'Matt, what are we gonna do with these guys?' Aurora wondered, pointing towards the unconscious bodies of the Gemini Vault Hunters. As if to answer her question, there was a loud whirring sound coming from above, before a whooshing sound, abruptly announcing the arrival of the Taurus spaceship above them. It started firing on Sanctuary, but the re-energised shield easily absorbed the blasts and remained virtually unaffected.

'DID YOU SERIOUSLY THINK YOU COULD GET AWAY FROM US THAT EASILY, MR RYE?' Denounced Commander Sharp over the announcement speaker. Matt fished through his pockets for an Amplifier Phone and responded. **(A/N:** **A microphone, but more hi-tech.)**

'NOT PARTICULARLY!' He claimed.

'SURRENDER OR ELSE.'

'OR ELSE WHAT?' The Vault Hunter laughed. 'WATCH WHERE YOU STAND, COMMANDER! WE'RE PROTECTED _AND_ WE HAVE SOME OF YOUR VAULT HUNTERS. YOU'RE AT _OUR_ MERCY!'

There was a pregnant pause from the Taurus spaceship, which instantly alerted Matt that Sharp was thinking over what he just said and how accurate it was. Which, was a lot. Matt turned down the volume of his Magnifier, knowing that Sharp was listening.

'SEND US BACK OUR VAULT HUNTERS NOW.'

'OK, but at a cost.'

'STATE YOUR INTENT, MR RYE.'

'Depends on whether you want to keep Caine with you or not.'

'CAINE IS AN EMPLOYEE AT GEMINI. HE SHOULD RETURN ASAP.'

'Perhaps,' Matt accepted vaguely. 'Except, you already discharged him from the corporation for failing to take me in.'

'I CAN REVOKE THAT.'

'Doesn't matter. You already proved that you think your Vault Hunters are expendable. And Caine doesn't like to be thought of as disposable.' He looked towards his rival turned kinda ally, and the man nodded insouciantly.

'You can't replace me. I'm one of a kind.'

'IF WE ALLOW YOU TO KEEP HIM, WILL YOU RETURN THE OTHER VAULT HUNTERS?'

'So you really _do_ think he's dispensable?' The Anomaly teased further. He shook his head. It was not the time to play with them. 'Fine. But I ain't bringing them up to you. You send some of your soldiers down – unarmed – and we'll make the trade. We'll open up a part of the shield, but if you even _think_ about firing down on us, then your little pawns are as good as dead.'

It was a false threat, since Matt didn't plan on killing any of them – although he admitted he had entertained the idea – yet it sounded grave and serious enough to be believed. Even Gaige and Aurora looked at him worriedly. He gave them a hardly noticeable wink to prove he was bluffing.

Commander Sharp sighed loudly over the speaker.

'WE ACCEPT YOUR TERMS, MR RYE.'

'Fantastic.'

Matt nodded to Lilith, and she ran over to the central spire to adjust the controls. She put her hand in the scanner, and it flashed green. She fiddled with dials until a small hole opened up above the Anomaly. Brick and Salvador dragged the unconscious bodies of the Gemini Vault Hunters towards it.

There was a flash of blue light, and then lines of holographic blue descended from Taurus down to Sanctuary, which then disappeared to reveal four Gemini Elites – sans Needles – in a two by two formation. They walked over to the bodies of Violet, Dan, Arcturus and Duke and picked them up, carrying them directly under the hole in the shield. Once they did, the holographic transmat beam re-initiated and teleported them to the Taurus spaceship.

Lilith restored shield immediately, as to prevent Commander Sharp from attacking Sanctuary as soon as he got the Vault Hunters he wanted.

' **NOW GO AWAY** ,' Matt commanded, turning up his Amplifier to the max.

* * *

'WE'LL MEET AGAIN AT THE VAULT, MR RYE,' Sharp responded, before warping back to Lima Base Hangar on Elpis. As far as he was concerned, it was mission accomplished. Matt had been right in that the commander did _indeed_ fire Caine and that under all circumstances, the Explosions Master was terminated.

Sure, Sharp had failed in his mission to use Matt as a catalyst to open the Vault, but it didn't matter all too much. The Vault was going to open soon anyway – which would definitely serve to bolster his diminishing reputation.

Truthfully, Commander Sharp was however displeased with his squadron of Vault Hunters. They had failed to defeat their Raider counterparts, and were outwitted quite easily too. It was disappointing, and warned him that the Gemini influence on the current solar system may be diminished – and therefore control over the Vault – if the Crimson Raiders weren't dissolved fast enough.

There was not enough time to train them properly, since they would be ordered to go to the Vault soon to take whatever artefacts may be locked inside. No doubt, they would succeed, but it also meant that as soon as they tried to escape with it, the Crimson Raiders (probably Lilith, the Siren) would prevent them from doing so. It was a risk; it was something that the man, unfortunately, was going to have to wait out.

It was now time to play the waiting game.

* * *

 **I have to admit, it was nice to bring finally up how Caine should be fired from the Gemini Corporation since he failed to bring in Matt, fifteen chapters ago. I didn't want to make it seem like that was an empty threat, and that he meant it. As said before, Commander Sharp believes Caine is disruptive and argumentative, prone to going rogue, so he was more than prepared to give him up if he had to.**

 **That being said, he still sent the Gemini Vault Hunters to rescue him because even Sharp could admit that the man was a valuable asset.**

 **I was always planning on bringing Caine to the team of Vault Hunters eventually, as shown in Matt's dream sequence, but I was at a loss for how to do it. Until that is, I had Commander Sharp show up in** ** _Forbearance_** **and realized that threat of termination was an easy and believable one to add in.**

 **Thus, Caine joins the Crimson Raiders. But I wonder how all the Sanctuary citizens will react to a man who just tried to kill them now inexplicably joining them…**


	31. Preparation

**So…the last few days have been interesting. There was some spike on the Borderlands fanfiction, possibly due to the reveal of the Borderlands VR (awesome!), and this story got bombarded with hateful comments from unregistered users, many of which were** ** _not_** **constructive. I don't think it is right to just hate on a story, and not be constructive.**

 **However, I'm not a biased monster, so I kept the (one) review that actually was. [I know, only one review, but still]**

 **Someone complained there is little reason necessarily hinted as to why Matt has feelings towards Gaige, since it's not really subtly referenced to prior to their relationship. This is a fair criticism – and I commend that particular 'Guest' for bringing it up – so I hope** ** _this_** **chapter gives you an idea of why. Matt looks up to Gaige, but it's not the only reason he has feelings for her.**

 **As for everyone else: I don't appreciate the pure hate I got. One person told me to scrap it, which I will** ** _not_** **do, since it's only a request of one reader, I've gotten this far, and other people (I hope/believe) are enjoying it.**

 **Anyway, I'm not gonna let hateful comments get me down, but I** ** _will_** **take account of the constructive ones.**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirty-One: Preparation**

* * *

The Vault Hunters were met with silence as the ship left. Sanctuary citizens slowly emerged from the bunker in the bowels of Sanctuary, happy that the cataclysm had ended before it caused any major damage. They would've celebrated, had they not seen Caine standing free and unconstrained next to the other Vault Hunters. Several pointed stares were thrown his way, with deep aggression rooted within them. Multiple Crimson Raiders crossed their arms in sceptical criticism of Matt's decision to keep Caine with him.

'He's a cruel murderer!' One of the citizens accused, breaking the quiet.

'He literally tried to _kill_ us a few minutes ago!' A woman shouted out.

'Yeah, why should we let this _barbarian_ live?' Another pointed out.

'Because I _say_ so,' Matt gruffly interjected. 'If we want a chance at taking down this Vault, then we _need_ him.'

 _Even IF_ _he may end up trying to kill us,_ the Anomaly added in his head, choosing to keep that part to himself.

'If Matt says so, then I believe him!' Jeffrey, the wannabe Vault Hunter, declared, clenching his fist and shaking it victoriously.

'He _did_ rescue Gaige as he promised,' his mother added. 'So I trust his judgement.'

'As you should!' The Mechromancer announced, jumping onto Matt and toppling him with a hug, giving him a kiss. They both laughed heartily on the ground as a few citizens clapped.

'Does anyone have a sick bag?' Salvador asked jokingly, causing Maya to elbow him aggressively. **(A/N: She may be asexual, but she's not a buzzkill.)**

Caine sighed loudly. 'The Vault is more important than stupid romance, idiots.' The comment received several boos, but they were hushed when the ex-Gemini Vault Hunter blew up a few small air pockets in his hand.

'You're not exactly giving a good first impression, are you?' The Anomaly warned him, with Gaige still in his arms. Caine glared at Matt as he stood with his girlfriend. 'However, the Vault _is_ important, nonetheless. And now that I have the location –'

'How did you get that?' The Explosions Master demanded.

'Sharp had it this whole time. Guess he didn't tell you.' Caine folded his arms, frustrated.

'Obviously.'

How much had Gemini really lied to him? He was aware they didn't tell him everything, but the man just assumed they were the little, unimportant things. Not telling him where the Vault was just unbelievable. His whole purpose on Pandora was to find it! Knowing Commander Sharp, he likely went as far as to cloak it so that Caine wouldn't find it. Sharp must've not wanted him to find it, likely because he wanted to wait until Matt was more readily available for his Bravo-11 invention before going through with it. However, knowing where it was would definitely have made it easier to protect it.

Since this particular Vault kept the Monster in, and one supposedly had to enter it in order to fight it, it wasn't like there was any risk of activating it early. Whatever this Vault entailed, it certainly made Sharp want to prepare for it.

This did _not_ raise Caine's confidence. Although, he had enough of it, to begin with. This Vault was going to be dangerous, no doubt, but, if there was at least _one_ positive quality about the man, it was that he was fearless. Then again, Matt was too, and he was fearless to the point it bordered on foolishness, if not overhauled it entirely.

This agreement was not favourable to him, though it was necessary. If the Explosions Master was going to hunt this Vault, then this was the only realistic way to do it: work with the enemy. At this rate, with the looming danger the Vault emitted, the Vault Hunter was going to have to accept any help he got. He may not _like_ Matt, but Caine hadn't anywhere to go, so it would be sheer pride to refuse his supposed rival's offer when it arose.

 _Anomo WAS always calling me out on my pride,_ he chuckled to himself, hiding the smile.

Plus, the Anomaly was powerful. Only a fool would question it. Yes, Caine saw himself superior to him – at least minutely – but having two powerhouses would be better than one. Even if, evidently, one was better than the other.

Furthermore, Matt's connection to this Vault made him extremely useful. Mainly, since only he could open it. Sharp was waiting for them to do that – so it was probable that they could convince the man to send in his Gemini forces to help. He wanted that Vault just as much as he or Matt did. Preying upon desires was easy for Caine; all you had to do was convince them it was beneficial for them, and then they would do it.

Simple, and easy.

'Are you gonna tell us where the Vault is, then?' Aurora prompted Matt, reminding Caine that she actually existed. Matt nodded, tapping his earpiece.

'It's on my ECHOear,' he explained. 'All I have to do is download it into the Crimson Raider scanner in HQ.' The Anomaly looked around forlornly at the rubble and debris left in the wake of the conflict. 'But is this _really_ the right time for that? I mean, it's gonna take a while to repair Sanctuary.'

'You don't need to worry about that, Vault Hunter,' a Crimson Raider ensured him. 'We've got this handled.' He gestured to his fellow Raiders, who, with the aid of Sanctuary citizens, began repairing and replacing the debris.

'Are you sure? Half of this was my fault –' The Anomaly persisted.

' _Positive,'_ the Raider cut him off.

'OK…' he reluctantly accepted, not quite believing it to be fair that they would repair damage of which some he had caused.

'You may have caused _some_ of the damage,' Maya told him. 'But it was for a good cause. All's well that ends well, right?' Matt smiled at that comment, nodding sincerely.

'You gonna show us where this Vault is, cúmbila?' Salvador asked, eager to be finally going after a Vault they had been trying to find for months.

'Right, yes,' the Anomaly agreed, beckoning them to follow him into Crimson Raider HQ. They all nodded, apart from Krieg, who energetically wagged his buzzaxe, and followed him as he walked.

Certainly, Matt's gait was a pleasant one, even with the common berating he would get from Caine every time he expressed it. The man was ever contemptuous of his rival, so the Anomaly was not too bothered by it. After all, Matt had been searching for the Vault for so long that it was liberating to actually be getting there.

This Vault was highly sought after, hiding something so powerful that it had to be hidden from the Vault Key's map of the Vaults. A scary thought, but it made the idea of defeating the Vault Monster _that_ much more exciting. While he _was_ scared, more than excited, thanks to his vision, the Anomaly was certain he had to use his fear to drive him.

Matt's motivation to take down this Vault had changed, too. Initially, it was because he didn't trust Caine with what might be inside – not to mention it was kinda his _job_ to hunt Vaults. Now, it was to prevent the entire Gemini Corporation from stealing the technology and power inside it. The Vault Hunter knew Gemini well enough to be certain that they simply could not be allowed to run the galaxy. No one should have that kind of power, certainly not a company easily corrupted by power.

It seemed strange now that the man he didn't trust – and _still_ didn't trust – was the same person he was now working with.

Now, the Anomaly was getting so close to the Vault that he was almost scared for what might happen. The future was avoidable – it hadn't happened yet, after all. However, Matt did not know the circumstances of that future. Not all of it, so he still had little idea how much he was changing it. It wasn't clear how the future even worked, or how his Siren powers could even bring possible visions of it.

Gaige tapped him on the shoulder. He jerked his head towards her, raising an eyebrow.

'I…uh…well, I was wondering…' her voice trailed off embarrassedly and the Anomaly could not decipher what she was saying.

'What is it?' He whispered, careful not to attract the attention of his other allies.

'Well, we've…um…we've never actually gone on a date before…so…'

'You…want to go out later?' Matt surmised confusedly, wondering why the Mechromancer was bringing this up now. Gaige nodded.

'We'll have some time before we have to go take on the Vault, right?' The Vault Hunter suggested hopefully.

'Uh, I guess…?' The Anomaly supposed. 'Do you have anywhere in mind?'

'I'll tell you once you've shown us where the Vault actually is.'

Matt nodded, although still half confused, and entered Crimson Raider HQ, with his allies behind him.

Tannis was sitting in the chair, apparently finishing up another ECHO recording, before noticing Matt's presence. Once the scientist did, she got up and walked over to him, rather awkwardly. The Anomaly stopped and raised an eyebrow confoundedly that the woman was apparently going to directly talk to him – rather than ignore him and blatantly talk about him into her ECHO.

'After you managed to send those Gemini forces away,' Tannis said. 'I find myself…appreciative at your efforts to protect Sanctuary.' The mad scientist then turned back around and sat at her desk again.

'Did Tannis just… _thank me_?' The anomalous Vault Hunter inquired in bewilderment.

'I didn't know she knew how,' Lilith commented in disbelief.

'CRAZY LADY CRAZY!' Krieg yelled, albeit slightly quieter than usual, as if he trying to inject something worthwhile into the situation, but it had been lost in translation.

'Anyway…' Matt brushed off, walking up the steps to the second floor. The Crimson Raider Vault Hunters followed behind him.

He walked over to the scanner, produced his connection cord and synced his ECHOear to it. An LED behind the casing of his device flashed green, indicating its connection. The scanner screens cut out, before displaying a green check-mark on them. The blue hologram suddenly flickered, went blank, and then changed to a red 3D Gemini logo, rotating, and grabbing their attention.

Hastily, Matt fiddled with the interface and sifted through the files. Eventually, he found the one containing the location of the Vault and interacted with it. It displayed a map on the screen of the northwest coast of Pandora, section NV0C 12o 21e, except expanded slightly to show some of the adjacent continents. A pulsing red dot was placed on the map, between the Dust, Lynchwood, and the Highlands. The text beside it was titled, " **THE VAULT** " in a clear white, over a red tab.

'So that's where it is,' Aurora noted absentmindedly.

'Our patrols got so close…' Axton added in pure amazement.

'Yet Gemini's been hiding it this _whole_ time!' Brick realised all too angrily, slamming his fist down on the scanner and causing the hologram to sputter momentarily, but thankfully resumed its display.

'Careful, calm your nerves / Do _not_ let this throw us off / Victory is nigh,' Zer0 advised, to which Brick sighed loudly but nevertheless nodded.

'Looks like we're going to have to take out a few border turrets,' Sal said, thoroughly enjoying the idea of shutting up the annoying voice emitted from Pandoran Security whenever one entered its danger zone.

'Well, we better gear up before we _whatever_ that Vault Monster is on,' Lilith ordered. 'I'm sure there are still a few guns lying around from when Matt and I raided the Gemini Armoury. Any leftovers should be…in Roland's chest.' The Siren directed the latter of that statement towards Matt himself, but it elicited no reaction from the Anomaly. He didn't even acknowledge that she'd ever begun speaking, to begin with.

Rather, Matt was staring at the map of their section of Pandora, specifically the Vault. Something about the specific position of this illustrious Vault irked him slightly, as though it was put in those exact co-ordinates for a reason. Maybe it was his Siren instincts, but something was alerting him to some kind of unknown factor behind the Vault that he just could not put his finger on. The Anomaly also didn't appreciate the mysterious, alien glowing of the Vault Key from within its force-field, in synchrony with his captivated thoughts–

'Matt?' Gaige called out to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. The Vault Hunter instantly noticed, and winced, head snapping towards her. He stood back up from leaning on the scanner console, shaking his head to clear it.

'Sorry, I, uh, just zoned out a bit,' he admitted, rubbing his forehead in an attempt to focus. 'Something about it, it's just…I don't know.'

'Siren instincts again?' Maya deduced, with an empathetic look on her face. Matt sighed and begrudgingly shrugged his shoulders.

'ANOMALY LIKES HOLOGRAMS!' Krieg pitched in, his own opinion almost too ridiculous to be ignored. Almost.

'You sure you're OK, Matty?' Aurora asked, with a frown deep with concern present on her face.

'Fine. Why wouldn't I be?' The Vault Hunter waved off, gesturing his hand dismissively.

'If you're certain,' The Revolverslinger replied gravely. 'Anyway, I better go talk to my parents about our next outing. They're probably still in shock with how we just…left them there so suddenly.'

'I…I kinda forgot about that,' Matt confessed guiltily.

'I'm sure they're aware of what happened with Gaige, so I don't think they'll mind all too much.'

'Speaking of which…' The Mechromancer addressed, holding Matt's hand almost urgently, but with her usual playful expression across her face.

'Wait, you've wanna go _now_?' He inferred.

'We're probably not gonna have another chance in a while, so…'

'Wait, go where?' Aurora asked, enquiring the one thing on everyone's mind except the two Vault Hunters. The Anomaly sighed again, not altogether happy that he would have to tell them.

'Date talk.'

'You're going on a date _just_ as we're about to take on a fucking _Vault?'_ Lilith criticised, mostly in incredulity rather than pure scepticism.

'Apparently,' Matt replied, shooting a mildly annoyed glare at his girlfriend for bringing this up so openly. 'Where did you have in mind?'

'Oh, a _currently_ peaceful spot in Thousand Cuts,' the Mechromancer answered vaguely.

* * *

She wasn't wrong. Terramorphous Peak _was_ currently very peaceful.

Not that being in the lair of a Raid Boss was the best idea for a date in the Anomaly's mind. However, Matt wasn't in a position to say, necessarily, since he had not actually ever _been_ on a date. Nevertheless, neither had Gaige, so, in hindsight, listening to her was probably not the best decision.

At least Brick had the common courtesy to call off his slabs so there was an easier passage to the Peak, to begin with. He even shot one of his Marauders when they attempted to attack the duo. Pleasant.

Gaige had actually brought a picnic basket, like a true lovebird, and seeing it made both of them laugh. Even now, as the two were walking across the bridge, it was hard for them to contain their sniggers about it. She'd never even had a picnic before, and the actual basket was loaned from Jeffrey's mom.

Matt, however, _had_ had a picnic before – a few times with Amelia in Acropolis, in simulated environments, which were made to look like the most peaceful woodlands, and maybe once or twice in the small forest he and his sister had found. Amelia always enjoyed the concept of the picnic, claiming once that it was the novelty of bringing a wooden basket to place food in as the most appealing factor.

When it came to Pandora, 'dates' were not the first thing on your mind, regardless of if you were dat _ing_ or not. First and foremost, survival was the key ideal, and it hardly wavered from that. It was not like Acropolis, where leisure was encouraged, because it was the designated city for leisure in Krolantia. Pandora had no cities like that, and the closest thing _to_ a city was Sanctuary.

Nonetheless, Gaige and Matt were out on a date they wanted to enjoy, so pointing out the flaws in it was not the best way to spend one.

'So, of all the places on Pandora,' Matt addressed with a hint of his now-trademark query-based humour, 'you decided that _Terramorphous Peak_ was the best choice?'

'Hey!' Gaige mockingly took offence to, eliciting a smile from her significant other. 'When there _isn't_ a giant Thresher Raid Boss smacking you with tentacles, this place can be really serene!'

'You call the fifty foot drop "serene"?' The Anomaly laughed.

'Well…there's…shut up!' The Mechromancer complained, exaggeratedly crossing her arms and harrumphing to display mock anger. Matt beamed with humour, giving her a shoulder hug that she jubilantly accepted, emitting a slight giggle in the process.

They both bravely jumped down on the large metal gate, which them flung open and dropped them on the large plateau, which dominated Terramorphous Peak. The flashing red sign aimed downwards was clear and accurate in its direction.

Much to their pleasure, Terramorphous did not rise out of the ground and attack them; little sound was made, apart from the slight chirruping of birds, which was mostly drowned out by the couple anyway. The entire atmosphere was silent, not unnervingly present; instead, it was peaceful and quiet. The entire area invited onlookers, and for a good reason.

'Hey, I can see the Bunker from here!' Gaige declared, pointing to a faraway Hyperion structure resting on a tall mountain, its back to them. It had a circular design, with a platform in the middle, and a helix-like corridor section snaking around the entire complex. Fancy.

 _Wonder what it's like seeing Terramorphous Peak from the Bunker…_ Gaige silently wondered. **(A/N: Reference, anyone? Love that Easter egg.)**

'Along with the rest of Thousand Cuts,' Matt added, having never been to the Bunker before. 'Anyway, you wanna set this out?' He pointed to the picnic basket that the Mechromancer had miraculously kept intact from the sheer drop. Gaige nodded and opened up the basket, taking out the picnic blanket and placing it on the grass near one of the tall stones.

It stood up tall and faced the even larger lake below, where a large, gold gate with a Vault symbol stood, currently closed. The large skeleton resting on one of the arête-like rock walls was visible too, likely from when the first Terramorphous – before it was figured that a ritual could be done to summon him again – was killed, or perhaps some other, equally scaled Thresher.

Sir Hammerlock was eating his words about the ever kind, ever cute "Terry" now.

There was something so mysterious and imposing about the nature of both the gate and the skeleton. Who had killed the original Terramorphous? Had they been the one to place to gigantic gate trapping the next one to be reanimated within? Was it an Eridian? So many questions, all of them virtually unanswerable.

Personally, Matt hoped there was an interesting history behind it. Because, if the answer to the first question, for example, was that the original one was not killed but died due to starvation and/or climate change – which, given the creature's size, was entirely possible – then the Anomaly would be extremely underwhelmed. If it was an Eridian (or even a Seraph, you never know) then it would at least mark the ancient race's history with capturing and containing even more beasts.

In fact, it was almost surprising that, if it was Eridians, they hadn't chosen to trap it in a Vault. However, the Thresher likely did not pose a threat to them as much as, say, the Destroyer did. Yet, they were _oh so_ kind enough to keep it locked up anyway.

Still, intrigue was invited at this point.

'Done marvelling over the sights yet?' Gaige called out to him, making her boyfriend realise that he had been staring, mouth slightly agape, at the landform below.

'I should think so!' The Vault Hunter chuckled, playing off his lack of helping her quite nicely. He set out some of the food, of which they had borrowed from the latest Pandoran Trade shipment, on the blanket, along with two plates.

Strangely, Matt was more interested in the actual picnic than the idea of fighting an extremely powerful monster Raid Boss – which was…weird. Perhaps it was due to the journey to Elpis and back, along with the mission to go with it that very nearly failed that snatched the prospect of a fight with, well, anything and left him in need of enjoyment and relaxation.

However, enjoyment was not something the Anomaly could afford for nowadays. Being a Vault Hunter ruled that out pretty much immediately, not to mention living on Pandora required restless work and toil. He was used to it; Matt was quite often on his toes, running or shooting at something other, and had been most of his life.

Even when he was younger, leisure was often out of the question – despite the fact that he lived in a _citadel_ of leisure. Amelia did not like lying around anymore than he did, often wandering around Krolantia – unsupervised, much to their parents' dismay – and trying to find something interesting. The leisure palaces in the city were fake: it was evident that it was not true, no matter how much you suspended your imagination.

When he joined the KMO, leisure was not a commodity, but a stupidity in the mind. You cannot feel relaxed when you are out in the field, fighting for your own continent to prevent any dangers spreading to the League of Associated Cities. (Acropolis, Zundar, Trevas, and Yeven.) Add to the chaotic cocktail the innate struggle for backing that the Order had, and it meant that you couldn't afford to relax. The Anomaly was just Matt Rye, back then: a simple _homo sapien_ , no less mortal than his compatriots were.

Death was a daily, perhaps even hourly, occurrence. He wasn't ever surprised when someone died, and would not be surprised if it happened to him. Luckily – or questionably, _unluckily_ – it never did.

'Hey, Matt?' He flinched, and looked over at Gaige with a risen eyebrow.

'Yeah, Gaige?'

'Can I ask you something personal?'

That kind of question would usually bring uncomfortableness in the recipient, and it was obviously going to do so, because the person had the foresight to recognise it as personal and not casual.

'Go ahead.' A non-wordy answer for such a non-wordy question.

'What were your parents like?'

A hard question for him to answer.

'Not the best,' he simply replied. Gaige was considering questioning further, but could tell that it was a sore subject.

"Not the best" was an accurate yet somehow also vague way of describing what his parents were like. The thing was, though, his parents were hardly around too often for him to actually to gauge their personality. Whenever he spoke with them, all he got were swift and impersonal responses that evoked no sense of care or love towards their offspring. They didn't care too much, but did still care somewhat.

Matt's mother, Deborah Rye, was a lawyer for the Acropolis Unity Courthouse down in the Eastern sector of the thriving city. She spent a lot of her time there, rather than in the Western sector, where their home was. According to her co-workers, Deborah was a driven person, who was admirable because of it, but her determination to succeed in her cases alienated others – specifically the barrister for the cases. Every so often, Matt would see Deborah around the home, and they would engage in puny conversation that lasted no more than a few seconds before it ceased again. It always seemed that she was only concerned with keeping them alive, rather than raising him.

His father was on the Escudo Police Force of the Western sector of Acropolis, which was why the Rye family chose to live there. It was easier for Nicholas Rye to move through the sector, around it, and back home – not to mention Nick was more likely to remember the area if he lived in it. Amongst his colleagues, Nicholas was the leader of the Force, and was very tough and austere, which was shown through his permanently stern expression. Whenever there was conversation between Matt and his father, there was always an aura of displeasure towards him that suggested that he was always disappointed in his son.

Deborah and Nicholas's interactions were common but hardly in company of Amelia or Matt. When they did, they showed little love towards the other, because they were so focussed on their jobs, and supporting their "family", and displayed mutual content towards their partner. Their marriage was arranged by their parents, but the two had met previously before then, and apparently liked each other somewhat. They "liked" one another, but that didn't mean they _loved_ one another.

As Matt and Amelia grew up, they began to see less and less of their parents. At such a young age, it was hard for them to form opinions of them. However, one notable thing was how they never mentioned their past together; there were no romantic or endearing stories from either of them – not a single moral-based story. There was only the occasional bedtime story, if they asked for it.

Nicholas and Deborah only sparingly batted an eye towards their children and what they did: they didn't mind – or rather, didn't _care_ – what things they got up to, and preferred to just let them do their own thing. Most of the time, they weren't caring for Amelia or Matt.

So Matt had to step up to the plate, instead taking care of Amelia rather than their own parents. It was difficult, because most of the time he wasn't able to care for himself, as he was so focussed on looking after his sister – not that he regretted it. The Darosian hoped how he raised her was crucial in making her the wonderful person she turned out to be, as long as he wasn't being too selfish about it.

'They didn't look after either of us that much,' Matt explained. 'I think they just wanted to make enough money for the family to be set for life. If they had achieved that goal, maybe they would've had enough time to look after us, and form that familial bond.'

'That's a pretty big "maybe",' the Mechromancer pointed out, picking out a sausage roll.

'It's not like they didn't care about us,' the Anomaly replied adamantly. 'When Amelia was murdered…'

* * *

 _Stern looks everywhere._

 _'_ _You are no son of mine!'_

 _'_ _How could I birth such a damned reckless idiot?'_

 _'_ _This is YOUR fault!'_

* * *

'…they were definitely heartbroken.'

'How times should I tell you it wasn't your fault?' Gaige pleaded.

'Until I actually _believe_ it,' Matt answered despondently, holding a ham sandwich poised in front of his mouth.

'Fine!' The Vault Hunter exclaimed abruptly, catching his attention. 'It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault… _'_ Matt elbowed her playfully, interrupting her, with a light chuckle.

'Shut up!' He laughed.

'It got you to laugh, didn't it?!' His girlfriend argued spiritedly. Matt sighed over-emphatically.

'Well, you _did_ lift my spirits…' He supposed. 'Enough about me. What about _you?'_ His tone suddenly turned dark and gravely serious, catching the girl off-guard. Turning towards him, Gaige could see Matt had a frown of deep concern, which ushered in his demand to know what was up with her.

'What do you –?'

'You _know_ what I mean,' the Anomaly interrupted, a hint of anger in his inflection. She knew that it wasn't completely towards her, but the Mechromancer could not help but feel slightly guilty for her part in releasing it. 'I believe you have the capability to survive torture. I _don't_ believe that you – or anyone, for that matter – has the capability to move on instantly like it never happened.'

'You don't have faith in me?' She questioned, fighting back the slow formation of tears.

'I _do_ have faith in you, Gaige,' Matt reassured. 'I have faith in you to tell me what's wrong. I could see you didn't want to talk about it so openly with the others. I didn't want to have to use this alone time to get it out of you, but you left me no choice.'

 _Damn. I forgot how observant he is,_ she thought frustratingly. _I only muttered a few things about it back on the ship, so I thought he didn't hear me…_

'I…'

'You've been traumatised, Gaige. I can see that, clear as day,' the Vault Hunter told her. 'And the _reason_ I can tell so easily is that I've been in the same state before. I know what it's like – thinking you're not good enough.'

'At least you _earned_ your place!' The Mechromancer suddenly and aggressively disputed. 'I still haven't. I'm still just weak and below you, and all the other Vault Hunters.'

'"Weak"?' He repeated. 'Are you fucking kidding me? Gaige, you're one of the strongest people I know!'

'No, I'm not. That's just a façade.'

'What on Earth makes you think you aren't on the level of Vault Hunter?'

'Because, Matt! You, Aurora, Axton, Maya… _everyone else!_ You all earned your titles! You _trained_ for it; you prepared for it! I didn't! I became a "Vault Hunter"' – she air-quoted it as she said it – 'on a whim, and without any proper preparation.

'I ran away from home, I saw Jack's advertisement for Vault Hunters, and I thought, "hey! This looks like _fun!_ I can be a Vault Hunter!" But the truth is: I can't! You don't become a Vault Hunter just because you want to. Bandits like to go after the treasures inside; does that make them a Vault Hunter? No, of course not!

'Look, I don't _think_ I'm not good enough, I _know_ I'm not good enough!'

' _Bullshit!'_ Matt argued. 'You helped kill Handsome Jack! You _actually_ took down a _Vault_! That's more than _I've_ ever done! I would say – without so much as a second thought – that you've earned your place. You're not "below" any of us; you are on par, if not, _superior_ to some of us. Better than me, that's for sure!'

'What…?' The Mechromancer enquired in sheer disbelief. 'Matt, you're the strongest Vault Hunter in the galaxy.'

'Perhaps, if we're talking _physically_ strong. When it comes to mental strength, you're stronger than I could _ever_ hope to be! I let the death of my sister hang over my head for _years,_ Gaige. I let the guilt ruin me, because I wasn't strong enough to face it. Even now, I let it govern me! That's not mental strength, that's a mental _weakness.'_

'Vault Hunters don't kill innocent people. They don't kill people who don't deserve it. _I have._ Marcie is dead because of me, and now there is a poor soul out there without a daughter to come home to. I'm not like _you_ , Matt. I'm not able to resist the urge to kill people I hate!'

'You didn't _kill_ Marcie. We've been over this, it was an accident.'

'That doesn't mean I've never wanted to hurt her before! I can't do what _you_ do, Matt. Commander Sharp ordered for your sister to be assassinated, yet you didn't kill him when you had the chance!'

'Really?' The Anomaly questioned, in somewhat bemusement. 'You seriously think I didn't consider it? I very almost _did_ kill him! I almost _couldn't_ resist it!'

'But you _did,_ ' Gaige pointed out.

'Doesn't mean I always have!' He objected immediately. 'I'm a Vault Hunter, and you know what? I _have_ killed the undeserving before! I've killed a lot of people, and some of them _did_ have families to go home to. They were just following orders; they couldn't have known better. However, I made sure that they weren't going home to their wife, or husband, or boyfriend, or girlfriend, or even children!'

'Matt…'

'But, you know what else? It doesn't affect me anymore. Because I know, the past can't be changed. I've faced my guilt about it, and moved on. Ironic, isn't it? I can move on from recent killings, but the murder of my sister? That's a no-go. Maybe, it's because they're faceless.'

'But I'm not prepared to do that. I'm not a real Vault Hunter; I'm just a wannabe…'

'If you're a wannabe, then I'm not the Anomaly. Guilt is a natural reaction. All of these thoughts, that you think shackle you, they only prove you're human.

'We're not _gods,_ Gaige,' the Vault Hunter continued. 'We're human. We have human weaknesses. We have emotions, we bleed, we wither and we _die_.

'No one _decides_ you're a Vault Hunter, except you. And, "wannabes" wouldn't be able to build a powerful robot with slashing claws and handy-dandy digistruction functionality.' His girlfriend actually chuckled, quietly, at that. She was really starting to believe he was right. 'If _I_ am a Vault Hunter – despite the numerous flaws I have – then you are _damn_ well sure that you are too.'

Silence ensured between them once Matt was finished. It was pregnant, but natural, as Gaige seriously thought over everything Matt had just said.

'You're right,' she accepted, a hint of a smile forming on her face. 'You _are_ flawed.' The Vault Hunter blinked at her statement.

'That's not what I –'

'I know,' The Mechromancer joked, her smile returning. 'But seriously, you're right. We've all made mistakes. And there is no set criterion for being a Vault Hunter. You want to be one, then you go hunt Vaults, and bam! You're a super awesome badass Vault Hunter.' She did some air punches, which elicited another laugh from Matt. Gaige leaned in and hugged him tightly. 'What would I do without you, huh?'

'What would _I_ do without _you?'_ Matt rebounded. 'Sorry to bog down the mood, though.'

'Nah, I think you _improved_ it.'

'This is one helluva way to prepare for the new Vault,' The Anomaly joked, leaning back and putting an arm around his girlfriend. Gaige smiled an incredibly goofy grin.

'I know a better way!' She declared, jumping up from the ground excitedly. Matt looked at her perplexedly, as the girl packed up the food back into their containers.

'What might that be?'

'One word: Terramorphous.'

'You're _…kidding.'_

* * *

 **Yes. They are going to fight a Raid Boss, because Terra is my favourite.**

 **With regards to other reviews, they were edging towards constructive, but they also included an insulting behaviour about them.**

 **One claimed this was "obviously a fanfic" (what were you expecting, a masterpiece?) and that Matt comes back "100x times more powerful", which he doesn't. He still has the same limitations, and he won't find it easy to fight the Vault Monster (although it seemed that way in the vision, but that was under duress). He still has the same limitations as before, although the criticism I did acknowledge** ** _does_** **have something along the lines of a point.**

 ** _I_** **am** ** _not_** **an incredible writer. I'm an amateur who loves to play Borderlands. I'm no Stevenson or Dickens, nor have I claimed to be.**

 **One major thing I want to address is that someone complained that Matt apparently has a problem with killing that no one else in the Borderlands world does. Lilith didn't have a problem killing Jack, and Matt would not either, it's just that he didn't kill Sharp because he realized it would cause more problems that it would solve. He looked at the situation rationally. If you go back, you can see that he kills Bandits and Hyperion soldiers freely; he doesn't have a problem with it.**

 **That particular Guest user then proceeded to accuse of me of doing it so I could "recycle" the 'villain' for later use. Sharp's not necessarily a villain, although he has done questionable things in the past – but all he wants is for people to stop fighting. I didn't use it to recycle him, but I suppose I will prove that later on, going by how this'll play out. I won't spoil it.**

 **I'm not saying you have to leave completely positive reviews, but the follow that Guest's way of doing it.**


	32. Quicken

**Boss fight in this chapter! I'm taking Terramorphous's health as Level 72 stats, although "levels" don't exist in actual Borderlands canon, it's just a game mechanic. I enjoyed writing this fight, but I hope it didn't feel too dragged out or anything. Strictly speaking, it takes a while for them to kill Terra, but there're only two of them and neither is Salvador, so I think the speed at which they do it is more realistic for the situation. And the actual fight is based off my own experiences when fighting (and killing) Terramorphous.**

 **Plus, I wanted to include all of the stages of the fights, but only in one loop.**

 **Hope it's enjoyable!**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirty-Two: Quicken**

* * *

She really _wasn't_ kidding.

'Nope!' The Mechromancer confirmed, bouncing around in her usual bubbly manner. 'Now, get off your ass! I need to clean this stuff away! We can't fight Terra with food on the battlefield!' The Anomaly sighed and got up off the ground, helping her to put the food away and folding up the picnic blanket carefully.

'Are you sure this is a good idea?' The Vault Hunter doubted. 'I mean, I didn't come here to fight a Raid Boss.'

'Vault Hunters are _always_ prepared!' Gaige argued. 'But no hiding behind Pride Rock, alright?' **(A/N: I can't write a scene at Terramorphous Peak without referencing Pride Rock!)** He frowned, shaking his head in confusion.

'My title is the Anomaly, not the Hider,' Matt deadpanned. Once they had finished, both of them looked on towards the skull horn used to summon the colossal Thresher. Gaige "sneakily" crept behind Matt, lightly and comically pushing him forward towards it. He immediately spun around and hung his arms up in mock frustration.

He shrugged his shoulders, and walked over to the edge of the plateau, looking down towards the large gate with the Vault symbol in the middle, and then to the actual skull horn. Its design was strung from the bones of Terramorphous himself, linking the soul of the Thresher to it, and allowing the ritual to occur.

Gingerly, Matt stepped slightly forward and bravely tooted the skull horn. Suddenly, the eye sockets in the skull below his hand, and the horned one above it, lit an orange light, and a loud, blaring honk came out that hurt his ears immensely. He was almost convinced to press his hands to his ears.

The gate opened vertically, sliding up to expose the darkness inside. It took a few seconds before a gigantic Thresher swam out into the lake, noticed the two Vault Hunters, and menacingly swam towards them. It ducked into the ground and disappeared. A whoosh of water could be heard, signalling the eminent arrival of Terramorphous the Invincible.

He rose out of the ground quickly and imposingly, bellowing the distinct Thresher roar that shook the foundations of Terramorphous Peak, and could possibly even be heard all way back at the Bunker. Its orange highlights and massive size made him truly a threat, possibly a larger threat than Crawmerax.

 _Lo and behold, come hither to see, the earth and land shaper itself, in all its glory._

* * *

 **Terramorphous the Invincible**

 **HP: 1,511,794,816**

* * *

Matt and Gaige had already begun their assault at it with all manner of weapons. Matt had his Double Anarchy equipped, with his Chimera pistol on stand-by. He was yet to modify it to add slag to the elements included, unfortunately, since it might be useful to be able to apply slag constantly to Terramorphous. Even if, annoyingly, the Thresher seemed to resist slag status effects. At least, Gaige had a Slagga for that purpose.

* * *

 **HP: 1,301,982,345**

* * *

Terra went back underground, creating earthquakes as the Thresher burrowed around under the soil. Moments later, the Thresher appeared back above ground, throwing debris at Matt – who was closer – that he barely dodged. It then turned and smacked Deathtrap and Gaige with its tentacles.

This gave the Anomaly a chance to aim better at the large creature's eyes, inflicting critical hit damage and decreasing his health further, but not by much, since the Mechromancer was too occupied with dodging the Thresher's tentacles to apply slag.

* * *

 **HP: 1,239,564,847**

* * *

Terramorphous roared again, and summoned his Spike Tentacles. They made a sickening whistle, signalling their commencement of firing their sharp spikes towards the two Vault Hunters.

Terra then went underground again, allowing Gaige and Matt to shoot the eyes of the tentacles, destroying them and forcing the Thresher to rise above ground again.

The Thresher himself threw spikes at them, and then went back underground. Moments later, he returned and roared, signalling the summoning of his Rock Tentacles.

* * *

 **HP: 1,082,58** **9,371**

* * *

Fortunately, it was not too difficult to dodge the rocks being thrown at them – giving that they moved incredibly slow while in the air. However, since Terramorphous himself had the opportunity to attack them at any moment during this, it became exceedingly difficult.

So when the rocks were mostly thrown towards Gaige, she had little time to dodge them because she was so preoccupied with dodging the colossal Thresher's attacks towards her. They all began to converge on her, and were about to hit, when Matt, in a flicker of red and black lightning, quickly moved her out of the way of this.

Terramorphous seemed briefly confused by the sudden action, having never seen Chronokinesis before. Nonetheless, its aggressive instincts took over and it continued attacking with his rock-throwing tentacles. Matt saw the mounting problem with this, and shot and quickly killed them before more could be thrown.

* * *

 **HP: 903,245,196**

* * *

The Beam Tentacles were not a challenge. Whilst they dealt a large amount of damage, their attack meant that they stayed in one place. And nothing was easier to hit than a stationary target.

Now that the Beam Tentacles dispatched, this Raid Boss was about to enter its (dreaded) next phase.

* * *

 **HP: 856,098,247**

* * *

With that iconic roar of his, Terramorphous entered his fire state.

 _Damn,_ Matt thought. _It's going to be much harder to inflict damage to him now._

He was proven correct as his shots could barely cap 1% of his health. Even with slag, and two Vault Hunters, this was going to be difficult.

The Thresher moved quickly towards them and smacked them around a bit. Matt's Antagonist shield was depleted almost instantly, but the slag balls it emitted were able to slag Terramorphous for a moment, allowing him to do more damage. His shield was able to regenerate as the Thresher changed its target, but Gaige's health was significantly reduced, and the Anomaly was forced to use his Chronokinesis to move her to the opposite end of the arena, near the edge.

* * *

 **HP: 851,014,843**

* * *

It didn't take long before the Masher Tentacles appeared. The Vault Hunters were forced to move quickly lest they be smacked around by the tentacles, or potentially thrown out of the arena itself. Neither was preferable.

Luckily, though, Terramorphous had briefly exited his fire state to change to his Masher Tentacles, so a lot of damage could be done very quickly – especially with more slag. The Mashers were easy targets as well, since they clumped together, attempting and failing to smack them. Gaige's Conference Call successfully hit all of their eyes and dealt exceptional damage to Terramorphous.

The sound of flesh hitting was displeasing to behold.

* * *

 **HP: 627,402,339**

* * *

The Fire Tentacles were tough. They moved around often and their flaming projectiles were damaging. Both the Mechromancer and the Anomaly could feel it burning through their shields.

In addition, Terramorphous re-entered his fire state, where he took significantly less damage but was able to inflict what felt like at least double damage. It was extremely difficult to dodge the frequent lashings from the creature's main two tentacles because them. Thankfully, bullets work as just as planned, even if the thought that some of them had been ripped from the hands of dead adventurers by Marcus was slightly unsettling. The fire tentacles were dispatched soon enough, and Terramorphous did not seem too happy about it. Its eyes – as indecipherable as they were – depicted only anger and a distinct need to disrupt the notions of the two Vault Hunters.

* * *

 **HP: 479,385,231**

* * *

So, when the colossal beast exposed its metal-like spikes, Matt would've believed you if you claimed the ugly thing was smiling in a uniquely bent way that sucked you in just as much as the proceeding singularity. Waves of purple graviton energy surrounding the creature, sucking in loose rock and ammo, and stabbing it, with an intense ferocity.

Matt and Gaige struggled to stay grounded, and the Anomaly had to use his time-controlling abilities to get quickly behind cover. Gaige was about to be sucked in, but Matt used his Chronokinesis in time to catch her and bring her behind cover with him. At least Terra was going to be easy target. He was entirely stationary while his singularity attack was active, so his eyes were targetable, slag could be applied and damage could be done with not much difficulty.

His Double Anarchy was perfect for the situation given its accuracy, and the swirling bullets were an added bonus. A Bouncy Bonny that was slag would've worked well, too, but the Slagga was effective and neither of them had a Bonny anyway.

* * *

 **HP: 295,154,219**

* * *

Terramorphous was losing health very fast. It was evident, given the numerous cauterised wounds across the great beast. Once it finally did stop its black hole attack, it roared again and summoned a duality of Spike and Beam tentacles. The spikes hurled projectiles towards them whilst the beams stayed centred and focussed on their targets.

The Beam Tentacles were once again an easy target, due to their almost entirely stationary position, so they were dispatched quickly – although their laser beams dealt a lot of damage, not to mention it frequently added a status effect.

The Thresher was definitely annoyed by the damage they were causing too, but it was hapless in its attempts to deal damage back to the duo, or kill them. Matt's Chronokinesis, of course, made it easier to dodge its attacks.

* * *

 **HP: 155,101,483**

* * *

Matt looked towards his girlfriend.

'Gaige! I need you to re-summon Deathtrap!' The Anomaly called out. She nodded, and digistructed Deathtrap, despite the fact that it was still malfunctioning and not properly repaired. The spike tentacles began firing at it, while it moved around and distracted them, with the beams centring on it.

'Order Deathtrap to move in front of the spike tentacles and clump them together!' Matt told her. Gaige, seeing what he was planning, directed her robot towards the Spike Tentacles. They disappeared underground and reappeared around the D374-TP bot and attempted to hit them with their projectiles once more. The robot struggled to dodge them.

The Tentacle Beams had moved to aim on Gaige and Matt, but the Anomaly used his Chronokinesis to appear behind Deathtrap, forcing them to refocus. They moved their beams towards them, but the Spike Tentacles were expertly placed in the way, and the beams sliced right through them.

* * *

 **HP: 99,999,999**

* * *

Terramorphous screeched in pain as it rose out of the ground.

The Beam Tentacles were thoroughly dispatched.

* * *

 **HP: 55,555,555**

* * *

Matt used his powers to once again switch quickly between his weapons and rain down bullets on the Raid Boss, whilst Gaige yelled one-liners as she shot at the creature with her beloved Hail assault rifle.

 **(A/N: If you're wondering why Terra is taking less damage now, that's because of health gating, which I will be applying to enemies as well as allies. Why not make it a canon thing for this fic?)**

 **HP: 32,692,363**

It was rare that Matt got to fight such a legendary monster like Terramorphous. Of course, creatures such as this could really only be found on Pandora, given its aggressive, territorial wildlife.

 **HP: 18,234,567**

So entirely different from Darios, where aggressive wildlife was so uncommon that more than 80% of the population of Krolantia hadn't seen fauna that could kill them before.

* * *

 **HP: 14,008,001**

 _His teeth made them flee in shame,_

 **HP: 9,446,230**

 _His breath was of fire,_

 **HP: 4,344,078**

 _His hide turned the mightiest tame,_

 **HP: 679,045**

 _His blood could inspire._

* * *

 **HP: 0**

* * *

Terramorphous threw up his two main tentacle arms in defeat, emitting a yelp akin to a moan of anguish. Its gigantic body plummeted to the ground, kicking up dirt into the air and throwing out a shockwave. Defeated, the Raid Boss sank back underground, like a chain sliding off of a table. It would not come back up again.

Loot fell from the skies like humble water droplets, many blues, and purples, a pink E-Tech, or two, and at least one Legendary orange.

'Wahoo!' Gaige enthusiastically celebrated. 'Don't mess with a girl and her robot!' Matt comically cleared his throat, intentionally drawing attention to himself. She was confused for a moment, before adding an addendum to her previous statement. 'Right. _And_ her super smart, mega strategic, Ultra Badass, time-controlling anomalous boyfriend!' Matt laughed at her description of him.

'Nice save,' he chuckled, looking down at her and putting an arm around her. It was nice being about six-foot, the Anomaly supposed. He looked over towards the loot. 'Hey, do you think there'll be anything useful?'

'Nah,' Gaige guessed. 'Terramorphous's drops aren't all worthwhile and they're incredibly rare to get.'

She was right, no matter how hard you looked at it. The Hide of Terramorphous, a "limited edition" Legendary shield, was the only drop that was actually worth it. The Teeth of Terramorphous shotgun wasn't _too_ bad, but it _was_ out-performed by numerous other shotguns. Meanwhile, the Breath of Terramorphous was not a good grenade mod, and the Blood of Terramorphous was not a good relic, either.

None of them dropped, fortunately – or unfortunately, if they wanted a Hide, but they didn't. There was of course the usual class mod drop.

* * *

 ** _Slayer Of Terramorphous Class Mod_**

 ** _Class Requirement: Anomaly_**

 _Burn Damage: +34%_

 _Burn Chance: +34%_

 _Max Health: +324409_

* * *

 **(A/N: For sake of simplicity, let's just say that Class Mods exist but skill point add-ons do not. And that the "Class Requirement" actually is just for people with that type of personality/role, not the Vault Hunters themselves.)**

Gaige and Matt were rendered speechless by the presence of an "Anomaly" class mod. Matt didn't generally use class mods, nor had he found one compatible with his kind of role in battle. He didn't know if it was possible for class mods even to be made for him.

'Well, better than nothing, I guess,' the Anomaly supposed, picking up the class mod. It was small and unorthodox compared to other class mods. It seemed to attach perfectly to his ECHOear, an extension on the end, and synced up almost perfectly.

'Cool!' The Mechromancer admired, as they began walking up the slope towards Terramorphous's treasure room. She bounced excitedly, overjoyed by their stunt with the Raid Boss.

'Don't think you're a _little_ too excited?' Matt suggested. 'I mean, you've probably beaten Terramorphous on your own before…'

'I have, but never as a _power couple!'_ The Mechromancer replied exuberantly. Matt froze, a blush creeping across his face.

'"Power couple"?' He catechized in shock, unable to digest the name.

'Well, yeah!' Gaige confirmed. 'We shoot with our guns together; we go like _pow, pow, pow'_ – she used her hands to act like she was firing an invisible gun – 'and things end up dead! It's awesome!'

'You want to be…partners, or something?' Matt deduced. His girlfriend avidly nodded. 'We're already teammates.'

'OK, but like, _exclusive_ teammates,' the Mechromancer childishly argued.

'Alright then,' the Vault Hunter accepted, jokingly throwing up his arms in defeat.

'Yes!' Gaige rejoiced, unleashing her hugging capabilities on her boyfriend relentlessly. It became very difficult to pry the girl off, while Matt tried to walk up the steps by the two chests in the treasure room. Gaige immediately was reminded by them and ran over to the chests, opening both of them in glee.

There wasn't anything of use inside, but the Vault Hunter didn't seem to mind. Crappy green and white loot wasn't enough to offset her joyfulness.

* * *

Lilith seemed unconvinced.

'And that was _all_ you did on your little _soirée_?' She interrogated. Gaige was left blank, with no clue what "soirée" meant, meanwhile, Matt was wondering why she chose to call it that. A soirée usually involved…

… _oh._

'Yeah…?' The Anomaly answered, feigning innocence at the question to which the Siren expected a different answer.

'Nothing… _overly passionate_?' She lightly asked, injecting the suggestive theme into the conversation. Both Matt and Gaige went red.

' _No!'_ They immediately protested.

' _Jesus_ , Lil,' Mordecai observed in shock. 'They're barely adults!'

'They're old enough to be interested.'

'I think you're blowing this a little out of proportion, don't ya think?' Aurora proposed, although she was against more because she didn't want to think about Matt doing that, rather than Lilith's blatant overreaction.

'Fine,' the red-headed woman finally accepted. 'Anyway, are you all fully prepared for the Vault?'

Were they? Good question.

They were in Crimson Raider HQ, so they had access to the bank at a moment's notice. All of their major weapons were often kept in there for safe use, and for the right occasion. Now: it had been emptied. All the Shams, Antagonists, Sandhawks, Lyudas, Storm Fronts, Transfusion grenades, Norfleets and Topneeas had been removed and stored in their ECHOs for easy access.

This _was_ the final fight, after all. Matt had spent a lot of time searching for this Vault – even since before the Crimson Raiders. He had come a surprisingly long way since he escaped the Genisys Project. Hell, he had come a long way since when he was perching above Blake's Bridge, shooting down Stalkers for their tails. Even if, to a degree, the recklessness was still there.

The past few months had been dedicated to this Vault, so it mattered that they do everything they could to win.

Even if the very _future_ was against them.

'It's not like this'll be impossible,' Caine stated, with what seemed to be something that wasn't arrogance for once. No doubt, he believed he had no trouble, but it seemed the Vault Hunter had accepted that his teammates were powerful and would not find it impossible like he wouldn't, either.

Hopefully, this divergence in behaviour and disposition of Caine would ultimately dissuade him from trying to kill them later on, as the vision had so prophesied.

If you had told Matt, from a few months ago, that he would be working alongside Caine to hunt the Vault, the Anomaly would probably have replied with a chuckle, and something along the lines of, "that's wishful thinking". If you had also mentioned to him that Amelia was alive as some freaky super ghost, then he would've called Tannis to do a psychiatric test on you.

Being the Anomaly meant abnormality defined you, but there was abnormality, and then there was absurdity. To him, Amelia was still dead, no matter how many times she sent shortwave messages to him to tell him to get ready for "the ascension".

There were still mysteries to be answered, ones which were not connected to the Vault they were about to hunt. Chief among them was what Amelia had become. Spouting nonsense about "the infinite" did not help, and her distinct robotic behaviour as of late was a mystery.

Maybe, after the Vault, the Anomaly could investigate it. Somehow. If, only, he had been concentrated and gotten more information out of Amelia, during her cosmic interspatial phone call, he would have more of an idea.

'If we're talking about defying the future, then maybe,' Axton responded.

'More optimism / Would help boost our confidence / Don't be negative,' Zer0 advised.

'Yeah,' Maya agreed. 'Besides, the future hasn't happened yet, so who's to say it'll happen?'

'Matt,' Lilith replied. 'But who knows? If I try my best, perhaps I _won't_ get torn into two pieces.' Her sharp sarcasm cut through the conversation with unprecedented force.

'It don't seem hopeful,' Brick commented.

'Guys!' Matt interrupted. 'Stop being so nihilistic, alright?! You see why I didn't tell you?' A pointed silence ensued, as all the Vault Hunters stared at each other. Matt had told them about it at their demand, and he was very reluctant to do so. Now that he had, he wished he hadn't divulged. The others were starting to realize why the Anomaly was so worried about it.

Their incessant arguing was getting overbearing. It had begun after they came back from Elpis, most of time while Matt wasn't around. They knew he would exasperatedly intervene, as he just did, so they avoided him when it happened and tried to resolve it themselves – despite the fact that the Anomaly was the person behind it.

'Guys, I have no doubt that we're going to get through this,' Gaige counselled, breaking the silence.

'Arguing is disdainful,' Matt added. 'You're gonna get nowhere just yelling at each other. Believe it or not, Caine is actually right in this situation.'

'The hell do you mean by that, Anomo?!' He exclaimed angrily.

'It's _not_ impossible,' the Anomaly continued. 'When you put your mind to it, _nothing_ is impossible. I'm sick of people who give up when it starts to get bad. _You,_ and _you only_ decided to become a Vault Hunter; _you_ are the one who got into this. You're singlehandedly aware of the danger, and you hunt and have hunted Vaults regardless. And now, as soon as wind that it might go wrong comes along, you give up? You're not a Vault Hunter if you give up going after a Vault.'

'He's right, amigos,' Salvador accepted. 'A Vault's a Vault. We hunt it no matter what.'

'It's pathetic that you'd give up so easily,' Caine huffed, folding his arms.

'Hey! I'm not giving up!' Mordecai defended himself. 'I believe Matt when he says we can do this.'

'I know, I know,' Lilith insisted sarcastically. 'You're _always_ right, Matt. We can't all be like you and magically pull a victory out of our asses. It might surprise you to know that the _rest_ of us _actually_ make mistakes.' Matt sighed pointedly, but Gaige seemed to take more offence to it than him.

This was proven when she angrily stomped over to Lilith and slapped her across the face, hard.

'Gaige!' Matt called in shock and scorn, but his girlfriend mostly ignored him. Lilith took a second to react, and turned her head back to the angry girl, staring right into the Mechromancer's green eyes, a red hand-print fresh across the Siren's face.

'Do you honestly think Matt _doesn't_ make mistakes? Or that he _thinks_ he doesn't?' The Mechromancer addressed calmly but still passive-aggressively to Lilith, before she could yell at the girl for her actions. 'Matt's spent the last few _years_ blaming himself for his sister's death. Repeating that mistake is one of his greatest fears. No one is perfect; Matt _certainly_ isn't. He's not always right and he doesn't always win. If he always won then I wouldn't have been kidnapped.'

'Gaige, that's enough,' Matt talked down.

'No!' She ignored. 'I'm not gonna allow Lilith to get jealous and misinformed over petty things!' Aurora looked up at that, before sighing quietly and staring down at the floor again. 'Why do you always have to be so difficult Lilith? I thought you'd learnt not to be selfish after Roland's death!' Lilith's expression darkened.

'Who?' Matt and Aurora asked, while Caine remained silent.

'Wow, Gaige,' Mordecai commented disapprovingly. 'That was a low blow, and you know it.'

'Don't bring Roland into this!' Lilith demanded, almost begging.

'You never failed to bring up Matt after he supposedly died!' The Mechromancer argued. The Anomaly instantly frowned at this, and turned to Aurora, who had a guilty expression written across her face.

 _So THAT was what they doing whilst I was away,_ he thought.

Lilith and Gaige dissolved into a seemingly never-ending argument, a perpetual cycle back-and-forth between them. A counter argument for an argument. A counter to a counter to a counter and so on. It was nearly impossible to break them up, as they continuously and childishly squabbled over Matt's judgement and his right to lie and misinform them as he had. The Anomaly was about to open his mouth to speak when –

'STOP SCREAMING!' Krieg yelled at the top of his voice, although it first it wasn't clear if he was telling that to the voices in his head or the two voices in front of him. Gaige and Lilith stopped and looked at him. 'YOU ARGUE AND YOU'LL UNALIVE YOURSELVES!'

'He's right,' Matt instantly agreed. 'It may not have been said in the most _eloquent_ way, but still: you two need to stop bickering like children.'

'But I'm _defending_ you, Matt!' Gaige pleaded.

'And I'm flattered that you're on my side. However, Krieg, fundamentally, _is_ right: if you two don't sort out your problems civilly, and act your age, then we _are_ going to die.' Matt, without missing a beat, turned to Axton. 'And Ax? Try to have a little more faith in me, OK? I never let you down when we were working together.' The Commando couldn't stop himself from nodding, defeated.

The room went silent, as Lilith and Gaige pointedly stared at each other. This confrontation and this tenseness between them had evidently been going on for a while, but it was clear both of them tried to avoid it.

 _They must've had an argument while I was gone,_ the Anomaly surmised.

Everyone had their breaking points. And when Lilith chastised Matt, the Mechromancer had reached her tipping point. According to Aurora, Gaige was reckless and constantly blaming herself for Matt's "death" after the Gulag Incident, so it was no surprise that when Lilith was being very reckless and selfish in questioning the Anomaly, the Vault Hunter was monumentally pissed off by the Siren's hypocrisy.

Lilith had lectured the girl to remain calm and keep emotions in check, but had just now chosen to express them in one of the most sanctimonious ways possible. However, the Siren was still failing to do this herself, and Matt could tell this had something to do with Roland.

However, the red-haired Firehawk had clearly learnt _something,_ because she sighed apologetically and put a hand out towards Gaige. The Mechromancer looked fearful, contemplating using her left, metal hand.

'I'm not gonna burn your hand,' she ensured. 'I shouldn't have judged you for the same things you can judge me for.' Gaige reluctantly took out her right, fleshy hand and shook it.

Lilith then turned to Matt, who was almost towering over her with his height.

'And I'm sorry I was so rude, I was misunderstood. I know you're not perfect and you're not always right, so I have nothing to be jealous or annoyed about. I understand why you didn't tell us.' She leant out her hand again, and Matt took it. She smiled and burnt his hand, but the Anomaly barely flinched. 'Hm. Better tolerance than the _last_ time, that's for sure.'

'Yeah, that happens when you crawl through several tonnes of rubble,' the Anomaly quipped, continuing to shake her hand. Applying pressure, Lilith recoiled back in pain. 'It seems _someone_ is lacking in pain tolerance…'

'S-shut up…' the Siren light-heartedly scorned.

'Well!' Gaige addressed ebulliently. 'Now that that's resolved, has everyone got everything they need for this?'

Everyone looked towards their weapons and searched through their respective ECHOs to see if all shields, grenade mods, relics and the like were at their disposal and to their liking. All the Vault Hunters nodded assuredly at the question.

'And…Brick?' Matt called. The Slab King nodded at the pre-conceived question.

'Called in my boys to give us a lift,' he replied.

'Good.'

 _Now all we have to do is take down a Vault._

* * *

 **Well, that was nice. I hope it doesn't seem like the boss fight is there to pad out run-time and delay the time when they go take on the Vault. The actual Vault Monster fight is in the two chapters at the** _least._

 **Also, Lilith and Gaige never properly resolved their argument from _Ruin_ (Chapter Nine), but they have now. And, I imagine, given Matt's capacity to succeed – and subsequent capacity to constantly fail – she might grow slightly jealous of him, since he had succeeded where she hadn't.**

 **However, Matt _isn't_ perfect. He makes and has made a lot of mistakes, but it _is_ likely that Lilith would blind herself to that.**

 **And finally, a note that I am still trying to improve Matt and Gaige's relationship so they have good chemistry that isn't cringy. There's perhaps nothing worse in a story than cringy romance. However, romance is not the focus of the story. Because this story is Adventure/Mystery.**

 **Anyway, see you in the next chapter! Not too many to go now!**


	33. Lay Waste

**Whew. These last chapters are taking a while. This may be the penultimate chapter, but I am not entirely sure.**

 **I put in this chapter now classic Borderlands mechanic that I've been waiting to do for months, so look forward to that, I suppose. However, I don't want it to feel like I am extending this too far, because no one wants to get the Vault and the Vault Monster reveal more than me. I think.**

 **I have one tiny thing to wrap up before we finally arrive at the Vault, which takes up a small amount of this chapter, but I think it makes sense to include.**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirty-Three: Lay Waste**

* * *

It was a little known fact that riding in the back of a Buzzard was a cocktail of refreshing breezes and fears of balance and height. The prospect of falling out and tumbling to your death was as entirely conceivable as the wind blowing in your face and potentially whipping you, depending on the speed of the Buzzard.

If Gaige was so fearful, she might've even thought that the strength would lead to that harsh drop that was so comfortably uninviting. She wasn't scared of heights…she told herself, while staying as close to the middle and as close to Matt as unobtrusively possible.

'You can't be afraid forever, Gaige!' Lilith warned her, while looking out to the plains below.

'Fear is a constant enemy!' The Mechromancer yelled back, over the sounds of the engine.

'Fear makes companions of us all, Gaige!' The Siren informed her, although the girl didn't quite know what to make of that.

Brick's Buzzards were currently flying over the northern border of the Highlands, and into the No Man's Land between it and Lynchwood. A look to the right revealed the Bloodshot Dam, not too far away, with the Marcus statue visible, even from such a long distance. It could be seen from anywhere in the Highlands. **(A/N: Not if you're playing Borderlands 2.)** Its distinct golden glisten caught the sunlight so well.

Pandoran Security Border turrets were dotted along the sides of this grey area, which the Buzzards promptly bombed as they attempted to prevent them from crossing. Salvador's wild celebration was unmistakable, although he waited long enough to hear the AI female voice to deteriorate and shut down. Satisfying, all the Vault Hunters silently and unanimously thought.

It was taking a few minutes to fly towards Lynchwood, but the view was nice enough to warrant the wait. Being so high up offered a lot of sightseeing, although Gaige was careful not to get so distracted that she might plummet to her death.

There were no other Vaults on Pandora – Hyperion, or Gemini, or the Vault Key would've indicated it. This was the last one, and it had miraculously remained hidden for quite a bit longer than the other two. The thought was enticing and made Matt excitable. He was Vault Hunter, yet he hadn't found a Vault before this one – and he could tell that your first Vault was going to be exhilarating and memorable. So, now, the prospect of taking on this one – which, lest he forgot, the Vault Hunter had a connection to – was a diamond opportunity.

However, the Anomaly could not go unfocused. What matter more was preventing his friends from dying, as his plaguing vision had foretold. There was no fun or excitability in watching your friends be brutally killed in a blink of an eye. Of all incomprehensibilities Matt had, or had had, in his life, the Anomaly considered why his Siren instincts showed him the vision to be the worst one. Time was not a living thing – but it felt as though the very timeline itself wished that Matt and his friends survived the ordeal. He couldn't control the visions he had; he couldn't control what he saw and didn't see. Messing with the timeline was dangerous, for obvious reasons, but it felt that, maybe once, time _wanted_ to be meddled with.

The buzzard shook slightly, and Gaige gripped onto him tighter. Matt sniggered at her fearful manner, and she playfully hit him on the shoulder.

'Hey!' She moaned jokingly. 'Stop making fun of me…'

'Sorry, it's just…' Matt began, not sure how to reply. 'I think there are other things that are more important than heights. You know, to put things into perspective. Besides, if you fall, I'll catch you.' Gaige smiled, touched by the sentiment, and leaned in closer to him.

As the buzzard passed over Lynchwood, Matt's ECHOear began vibrating compulsively. Confused, Matt tapped it, and the HUD display re-activated.

* * *

 _/ /_ _ECHO_Ear initialising…_

 _/ / Loading … 100%_

 _/ / Ammo display … 100%_

 _/ / Running diagnostics program…_

 _/ / Health scan complete._

 _/ / All bodily functions nominal._

 _/ / Shields display … 100%_

 _/ / Capacity: 717,323_ **(A/N:** **Unfortunately, I could not find** _ **anywhere**_ **the stats for a perfect Level 72 Antagonist. If anyone has it, let me know!)**

 _/ / Cyber Security Protocol initialising…_

…

 _ **[ERROR! ERROR!]**_

 _ **[VIRUS DETECTED!]**_

 _ **ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE ACTIVATED.**_

…

 _ **SOFTWARE CORRUPT**_

…

 _ **ANTIVIRUS FAIL!**_

 _ **REBOOTING…**_

…

…

 **ECHO_ H4S ST033ED W-5RK1NG…**

* * *

Matt's eyes widened.

'Oh no, no, no, shit!' He susurrated angrily. Gaige looked up at him confusedly.

'What's wrong?' The Mechromancer enquired worriedly. The Anomaly took a few baited breaths.

'My ECHOear's developed a virus!' Gaige almost gasped at that, immediately taking out her hand, palm upwards.

'Lemme see!' The Vault Hunter urgently demanded, and Matt handed it over to her. She tried to activate it, but the LED on the side flashed orange, flickered, and then shut off again. 'Have you still got that connection cord?' The Anomaly nodded, and took it out of one of his pockets, handing it to her.

Gaige plugged it into the ECHOear and into a port on left, metal arm. She pressed a few buttons on her arm, and a blue holographic display appeared over the top. Waving through the files and programs, she eventually found **ECHO_EAR . EXE** and bypassed its virus lock-down procedure.

Abruptly, the ECHOear flashed red and a large, red holographic display emitted from it. Lilith – the only other person in this particular Buzzard, apart from the driver – immediately swivelled her head to the fiasco, in order to decipher what was going on.

'Woah,' Lilith stated simply.

Gaige read the alarmingly red text, and grew increasingly concerned. The Anomaly noticed and read the text, but he could not completely understand what it meant.

'How worried should I be?' Matt asked gravely.

'Quite,' the Vault Hunter replied honestly and bluntly. She instantly went back to inputting into her ECHO-enabled arm, attempting to sort it out. 'This virus…I've never seen anything like it. It's so…complex. This'll take a while.'

 _But hopefully not too long,_ Gaige thought. _Matt will NEED his ECHOear by the time we arrive at the Vault!_

It was difficult to identify the virus. She'd never seen it before, and it behaved very aggressively – both of which made it substantially harder to neutralise it. Gaige was irrefutably excellent at computers, so if she was finding it difficult, then it was clear that whoever made it was a master with 27th Century technology. **(A/N: It's an enigma what time the** _ **Borderlands**_ **series takes place in, in relation to ours. So 27** **th** **Century is just a guess of mine.)**

Gaige was better. Hopefully. It took a while before she realized what she needed to do.

'Aurora, I need to borrow your ECHOear!' Gaige asked over the ECHO. 'A bunch of files and protocols on Matt's ear have been corrupted and I need your non-infected device to purify Matt's.'

'And you want me to _what,_ exactly? Throw it to you?!' The Revolverslinger criticised.

'As long as you've got a good enough throw, I can catch it,' the Anomaly pointed out. 'Brick, can you call Aurora's buzzard to move in parallel to us?'

'Sure thing!' He directed the pilot to move, and soon enough, Matt could see Aurora from inside the buzzard parallel to them. She had her ECHOear in hand, and aiming her shot. The two vehicles halted, both making the shot possible and easier to target.

The Anomaly nodded to her, and his fellow Vault Hunter took a deep breath, before throwing it towards him. Matt instantly slowed down time, a flicker of black and red lightning emanating from him, which luckily did not damage the Buzzard.

As the ECHOear came closer and closer towards him, the Anomaly readied his hands to catch it. Thankfully, the Revolverslinger had given a good throw. The ECHOear eventually arrived, flying into his hands, but the motion was slow and easy, so he easily caught it. Time resumed normal passage, and the buzzards continued to move.

'Got it!' He announced, rather triumphantly, handing it to Gaige. She anxiously took it out of his hands, wirelessly connecting the two ECHOears together to share files. It would only be a matter of time before the virus replicated itself and imprinted onto Aurora's ECHOear, so the Mechromancer had to work quickly.

Gaige found it difficult. She had to focus, more so now since the Buzzard continued to move. Luckily, the Mechromancer was good at focussing.

Several minutes later, the Mechromancer had her breakthrough. She managed to get into the code and identify a variable, which caused the virus to replicate. With her magic fingers, she deleted it.

Eventually, Gaige was able to identify the manufacturer, too, although which company it pertained to wasn't clear.

'It was made by a…' She blinked to read it properly. '"Arnold Daxam"?' By the surprised and angered expressions of Matt (and, presumably, Aurora), it was likely someone significant that they knew.

'That's the head of Gemini Technology Department!' Matt exclaimed in shock.

'Didn't know he created viruses,' Aurora added over the ECHO. 'I guess Sharp must've infected your ECHOear with a virus at some point so you'd be potentially without weapons.'

'But he knows I have Gaige, why would he try this…?' The Anomaly wondered, until a possible answer came to him. 'Unless…he put this on _before_ I left? Maybe it was meant to activate under a certain failsafe.'

'Could be,' the Mechromancer agreed, going back to eradicating the virus. Gemini had a certain way that they seemed to go about their technology, and as such, had corresponding weakness and exploits in their code. She remembered what she had done to hack the fast travel station in T-Bone Junction a while back, so now that she was aware the code was one and the same, repairing the ECHOear became a million times easier.

Gaige smiled.

'Boom!' The Mechromancer celebrated. 'I got it! Sweet dreams, Gemini Technology Department!' She handed both ECHOears to Matt, citing that he would return Aurora's once they landed. 'All of your digistructed weapons are intact, along with any other equipment or storage or path-finding data.'

'So my GPS map and personal goals are as they were?' The Anomaly checked. She nodded. 'Awesome! Thanks, Gaige!'

'No problem.'

'Heads up! We got company!' Brick announced loudly, concerned.

Matt looked up to scan his surroundings. They were descending onto the dusty semi-desert plains between Lynchwood, the Dust and the Highlands, where there was a small, Gemini outpost, placed hastily, along with a surplus of Elites and Guards. There were evidently too many of them to _all_ be accommodated in the small outpost. Clearly, Sharp had gotten desperate in deploying his forces down to the Vault that he overestimated how many he would need. However, with a little negotiation, Matt supposed he could possibly convince the commander to help him to defeat the Vault Monster.

However, once the Vault Monster was dead, that potential truce would end. While they both had the common goal of taking down the Vault, their motivations were completely different. Sharp desired the technology and knowledge within to bolster Gemini's influence and power, in order to keep his job and fulfil the company's dream of running the entire galaxy; Matt wanted to because for the obvious reason that it was his job, and also to stop Sharp from achieving the latter.

He'd just have to see, although a revelation such as that would always be waiting in the dark.

Eventually, the Buzzards landed. With the urgency of a headless chicken, Matt and his teammates practically threw themselves out of them to face the Gemini forces. The sandy plains, with patches of grass, met their feet with the unwelcoming greeting that had since become synonymous with Pandora, and the solar system as a whole. Sand tried to penetrate their shoes like an invasive virus, with all the subtlety of a bull in a China shop.

Not acknowledging it would result in ending up in the doghouse.

Interesting, now that they were facing the Gemini Corporation, and already it felt unwelcoming, and the tension in the air was tangible. Utter silence erupted amongst both sides as the Vault Hunters trudged forward to face the seemingly endless line of Gemini soldiers, who were not ready to relinquish their control over the Vault. Perhaps, if they claimed they would so easily and quickly, then that could be considered a petty adynaton.

'Stand down, Mr Rye,' a voice ordered from behind them. Matt's eyes narrowed. He recognised that voice, and he wasn't happy to hear it. The owner of the voice stepped through the crowd with a stern look upon his face.

* * *

 **Commander James Sharp**

 _Peace through chaos._

* * *

'Expecting someone else?' Sharp sardonically asked him. 'I like you, Matt.' He assumed a false smile, which instantly switched to a grave frown a second later. 'So don't make me riddle your friends with bullets.'

'You won't kill me,' the Anomaly taunted. 'You _need_ me. And you _know_ I won't help you if you kill my friends.'

'You will if I threaten them first,' he responded bitterly. He waved his hand dismissively towards his soldiers, openly commanding that they threaten the Vault Hunters and be on guard to shoot them down.

When Sharp did, however, the Gemini soldiers did nothing. Not even a flinch.

'What are you idiots doing?' James demanded, a vein almost popping out from his temple. He gestured angrily between them and the Vault Hunters. 'Shoot one of them!'

One of his own soldiers, boldly, turned to face him, with a steely expression.

'One of the first rules of combat,' he stated. Another stepped out to face him also.

'Know which side you're fighting on,' she finished. The row of eighteen soldiers then casually and unanimously walked over to join Matt and the rest of the Crimson Raiders.

'And we don't work with people without honour,' one of the former Gemini Elites chastised him.

'Or those willing to throw away their smaller cogs,' one other one added. Needless to say, Sharp was shocked and angered by this blatant betrayal of his underlings.

'It's treason then,' James accused. 'The penalty for duplicity is death. Guards! Deceptors! Elites! Conquistadors! To me!' It took a matter of seconds before the rest of the soldiers penned at this outpost arrived, weapons in hand, and apparently listening to Sharp. 'I want the stench of betrayal defiling the air no longer. Guns at the ready. I wanna see them lay waste to your deserters.' The guns prepped, but they did not fire. Instead, the Gemini soldiers aimed their guns at Sharp relentlessly.

'I would do as you say, _commander_ ,' a Conquistador addressed him derisively. 'But you _did_ just prove their point.'

'No matter,' Commander Sharp replied calmly. 'I still have one trick up my sleeve.' He quickly went for a communicator in his literal sleeve. 'My personal taskforce all think the same way I d–' **(A/N:** **By "personal taskforce", he means the Big Five, along with a gross of other personally trained Gemini soldiers, and his Vault Hunters.)** The commander was interrupted by the piercing sound of a gunshot. A Gemini Elite had expertly shot the man's arm communicator, causing it to malfunction and break.

'You'll not be calling in _any_ taskforce today, sir,' the Elite ensured him. James's face dissolved to pure fury.

'Y-You…you traitors!' He insulted, but they didn't listen. Instead, they all walked over to Matt, where one of them shook hands with him, joining forces. ' _COWARDS!_ You all lack the will to enact the vision of Gemini! I could've stopped all of this! I could've ended the fighting! The deaths, the murders, _everything!'_ But no one was listening. 'My daughter would've been able to rest easy…rather than waiting for the chaos to end.'

Matt considered ending Sharp right then and there, but knew it wasn't worth it. Killing Handsome Jack was no doubt different from potentially killing the shambles of a commander that stood before him. He still had a daughter, Mary, to go home to. If that meant reformation, then it was worth it.

'Lock 'im up,' the Anomaly ultimately decided, and a few of the ex-Gemini soldiers nodded to him, walking up to Sharp – who seemed mostly inconsolable – and cuffing him. The man hardly noticed it, and accepted it, knowing now that all the power and reputation he once had had been snatched away from him as penance for his actions. If he redeemed himself, Matt hoped, then maybe Sharp wouldn't have to live such a miserable existence and turn it into something meaningful.

Burning hatred for the murder of his sister still lay rooted into Matt's subconscious, but that hatred was for the commander he knew, not the James Sharp being escorted away before his eyes. Revenge was out of reach, but not being aimed for any longer. Not for exacting revenge against James Nathaniel Sharp.

Director McCain was still out there, waiting and calculating. Once the Vault business finished up, Matt knew his next mission was to find him. Maybe to kill him; maybe to remove him from power. Killing felt like a worthless action now that he had seen, first-hand, that potentially anyone could redeem themselves. But still an effective action.

The biggest goal on his agenda was to destroy Gemini. And, perhaps, what remained of Hyperion.

'So where are his Vault Hunters?' Axton wondered aloud.

On cue, the Taurus spaceship arrived, exiting his warp-drive with an audible whoosh of fast-moving air. It was clearly not being piloted by someone like Sharp, as evidenced by the uneasy movement it presented. The transmat beam emitted from the bottom – reversing the polarity – and, within seconds, the Gemini Vault Hunters appeared. They did not look happy.

'Commander Sharp told us to come in as soon as his signal went cold,' Arcturus informed them. 'It appears Sharp has been…disposed of.'

* * *

 **Arcturus Vaus**

 _Things are about to get stormy._

* * *

'Ooh, do you guys have a torture chamber set up?' Violet energetically and freely inquired in manic, inane glee.

* * *

 **Violet Parker**

 _About to enlighten you._

* * *

The Swift, the Light Bender, the Fable and the Digi-gram all approached the Crimson Raiders with aggressive interrogation.

'Since when did Gemini join forces with the Raiders?' Daniel asked rhetorically.

* * *

 **Daniel Marx**

 _Now in digital edition._

* * *

'I swear to God, one of these days this job'll kill me,' Duke commented tiredly.

* * *

 **Duke Minoosh**

 _Aim on the straight and narrow._

* * *

'I would suggest you surrender if you try anything rash,' Axton advised, feeling confident after they had beaten them in Sanctuary.

'Wouldn't dream of it,' the Fable ensured. 'We have a common goal of the Vault. We have no need to fight you.' He turned his head to Caine. 'Nice to see you found a place, Caine.'

'We're not friends,' the man grumbled, although whether he was saying that about Duke or his new allies was unclear.

'If you're proposing a truce than we accept,' Lilith said. Everyone nodded mutually at the idea. Right now, fighting them would be a waste of time.

'Just…keep _her_ away from me,' Gaige requested, pointed to Violet Parker. She giggled at her uneasiness, but Duke shot her a look that instantly shut her up. 'And _you'_ – she glared at Daniel Marx – 'don't even _talk_ to me.' Dan seemed unsurprised at this, and callous about her hatred. After all, it was a temporary truce.

'You able to deactivate the cloaking device?' Matt asked them all, and the soldiers nodded.

'"Cloaking device"?!' Violet interrogated. 'Cloaking what?'

'The Vault,' Aurora answered. 'Sharp has kept it hidden this _whole_ time, since Matt's the only one able to open it right now.'

'Normally the Vault Key would be able to open it every two hundred years,' Lilith added. 'But, Matt's drawn to him; it compels him to open it now.'

'You have _got_ to be kidding me,' the Digi-gram groaned aloud.

'That being said,' Matt continued. 'You are _not_ going to get your hands on whatever technology is inside it.'

'Nice to know you trust us, Matt,' Violet remarked sarcastically.

'A necessary precaution,' he lied. It was more than that. The Anomaly could tell he had already drastically altered events, but it was unknown what aspects of the future would be different.

'Er, sir…?' An ex-soldier asked for him.

'It's Matt,' the Anomaly requested, turning to him and smiling. The soldier's eyes widened at such a personal decision, and nodded disconcertedly.

'I'm here to take you to the Vault,' he responded. The Vault Hunters nodded, and followed behind him.

The Crimson Raiders, along with several ex-Gemini, tagged along with the Vault Hunters, many of which escorting them to the location not too far away. They could see the set-up in the immediate distance: futuristic technology with glowing blue lights to indicate their functionality, along with an obnoxious Gemini logo plastered across, begging for even the slightest ounce of attention. It certainly got it, but it wasn't welcomed.

Helios glinted in the sky, emitting a kind of threatening aura about it, which unsettled him slightly. Someone really should get on with kicking it out of the sky already. Maybe once Matt was done with the Vault he could, hopefully to eradicate Hyperion.

They walked towards the extension of the outpost, which held the equipment that was apparently cloaking the Vault.

'Commander Sharp authorised the cloaking of the Vault six months ago,' a Gemini Elite informed him. 'He's been hiding it ever since.'

'That ends now,' Matt announced victoriously. The Elite nodded to one of the other soldiers, and he pressed a few buttons on the holographic display, and dragged a bar of blue light down to zero, until it went dark and inactive. And it deactivated. The cloak disappeared.

Standing before was a tall structure of stone, held together by levitating chunks of rounded rock, in an extravagantly smooth detail. It seemed currently dull and inactive, as exemplified by the old rock with no sign of energy flowing through. The large space the structure presented was unseen, and only showed the further surroundings of the seemingly endless semi-desert.

The Vault.

* * *

 **Right, well, that was nice.**

 **I certainly enjoyed writing the introduction cards for some of the characters in this chapter. I'll be doing the rest of the Vault Hunters next chapter, which'll be nice.**

 **Next chapter will likely be the last chapter, or near it, and I'll be calling it** _ **Apotheosis.**_ __ **It's not going to be named after a skill as I don't think any would be appropriate. However, if I end up writing more than I planned, then it'll be named something else (also probably not going to be a skill) and the last chapter (excluding the epilogue) will be named the latter.**

 **To be honest, I didn't really expect myself to be saying I'd be getting to the final chapter, but it's fuckin' awesome to be getting there. I first started planning this out in February, and I posted it to this site in May, so that'll give you can idea of how far I've been going with this.**

 **The next chapter is the Vault fight! All shall be revealed! A twist here and there, if I can fit it in. I dunno if the next one will actually be the last chapter or if there'll be another one. However, I** _ **am**_ **certain that there'll be an epilogue.**


	34. Exodus

**This took** ** _so long!_** **I am afraid this is not the final chapter, as I realized it was getting too long, and I had to split it in two. However, the Vault Monster fight** ** _is_** **what predominantly makes up this chapter, so it's not like there's a million paragraphs of build-up, since the entire story has been building towards this moment. I also wanted to make this more grand, so that's why it's a whole chapter.**

 **I don't want it to be a cop-out.**

 **Also, you** ** _finally_** **learn the name of the Vault Monster in this chapter, so that's cool. You also learn what it looks like and its mechanics. It has a certain way in which it fights; it not some giant monster that squashes them.**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirty-Four: Exodus**

* * *

The Vault: an ancient construction of an alien race more mysterious than conceivably possible for the average sapient being. It held unknown power and knowledge that the human race – or any other race of aliens – would love to repossess and take advantage of at any moment.

However, they couldn't face the atrocity inside in order to acquire the secrets inside. Enter: Vault Hunters. Vault Hunters possessed an unnatural ability to surpass the casual human, which allowed them to defeat the Vault Monsters trapped inside the Vaults, for a shot at the Eridian technology inside.

And, of course, there were the Eridians. Or what remained of them. A powerful and intelligent species with a capacity for scientific research, the likes of which extended beyond the normal regions of other aware lifeforms. Their technological advancement seemed so far above the genii that came after that may have viewed their feats as entirely magical.

Eridian Guardians were perhaps one of the last remaining extracts of the once great alien race, along with the Vaults themselves.

It was unknown what happened to them, where they originated from, or why the Medusa sector seemed so important to them.

Even with their unimaginably advanced state, a potential cataclysmic event or self-instigated extinction event was entirely plausible. Whether it have been a meteor strike or simple decay and obsolescence, the Eridians were gone, remnants of their history left behind to wither and rot.

Death. Destruction. These were unfortunate familiarities to the Anomaly. He'd seen it all too often, experienced it more than he would've liked, and tried to forget more of it than he'd ever tried to remember anything in his life. In the end, though, Matt realised that the only way to move past it was to embrace it, and carry it with him.

Darios suffered decay and edged on extinction several times, and had barely been able to pull themselves out of it – not to mention each time it happened, no one would be hopeful that it would never occur again. A truce was met when Amelia and Matt were kids, and it only took about a decade before another war broke out. Like many, he was forced to join the KMO; he risked his life constantly to help maintain the leisure of Krolantian citizens, who would no doubt lie in bed in their high-rise buildings oblivious to it, consuming expensive food and watching pathetic soap operas on their widespread holoscreens.

It was because of this that, when the Anomaly was faced with the Vault, right before his eyes, there was a feeling of sad reminiscence, as he thought about the long-lost history of the Eridians.

The Vault Hunters looked on at the Vault. It had an inactive history behind it, one not altogether inviting history.

Matt looked around him, frowning. The Gemini Vault Hunters weren't here the last time, nor were the Raiders or ex-Gemini soldiers. This was very different from last time he saw it; hopefully, different enough.

He flinched as Caine walked towards and placed his hand against the side of the circular Vault panel. Nothing happened.

'I guess that Tannis scientist was right,' Caine repeated. 'Only you can open it. You have to transfer energy in.'

'So we're clear,' the Anomaly responded. 'Don't think that once the Vault Monster is dead all the tech inside is yours.'

'We can decide what to do with Caine once we take down this Vault, kid,' Maya added.

'I'll do what I like, Anomo. Unless, you want me to kill your girlfriend,' Caine threatened, pointing his hand at Gaige and creating small air pockets around his palm and exploding them as an example.

'Try it and I liquefy you,' Lilith countered.

'Not as if you'd be able to do it fast enough, bitch,' the man re-joined. Matt had heard this all before, but still felt compelled to comment on Caine's choice of language, however, it felt irrelevant.

 _God, I hope I'm making the right decisions here,_ the Anomaly prayed silently.

He walked over to the circular panel, and reached out a hand toward it. As Matt did, his arm began flickering with red and black lightning, which softly transitioned to purple, Eridian-like lightning. He felt his arm being attracted to it, but simultaneously feeling slight repulsion from it, as well – which became stronger and stronger as it got closer.

Eventually, his palm made contact with it, and there was an explosion of purple energy that threw him back on the ground next to his friends. Gaige, Aurora and Axton helped him back up.

'Did it work?' Maya enquired aloud.

To answer her question, there was a slight whirring sound from the Vault, which drew their attention.

Purple lines of ancient Eridian energy spread through the cracks in the stone. The lines spread across quickly, reaching the other end like a rainbow within a few seconds. Bolts of Eridian power zapped from the sides of the Vault, converging together. They swirled around and opened a purple portal, revealing the interior of the Vault inside.

'This is it, everyone,' Matt announced. 'The Vault.'

The Vault Hunters took out their weapons, and walked towards it.

The Anomaly clenched his fists, emitting sparks of red and black lightning, charging up his Chronokinesis.

 **Matt Rye the Anomaly**

 _Slow down._

Aurora seemed concerned about what the Vault may entail, but she had no right to complain about it since her job was Vault Hunting. Complaining would be the height of hypocrisy.

 **Aurora Lux the Revolverslinger**

 _Trailblazer of purple-trailed bullets._

Deathtrap was ready to go, and her arm was prepared to digistruct at any possible moment. Gaige was ready, feeling exhilarated, but not scared to embrace any quark of fear that formed behind her tense expression.

 **Gaige the Mechromancer**

 _Accuracy's overrated._

Lilith was glad she wasn't being used as a guinea pig to open the Vault this time, although Matt probably wasn't too happy that it had to be had to be him this time. Her Siren instincts were drawing her to the Vault though; it was an uncomfortable feeling that she couldn't resist.

 **Lilith the Siren**

 _May or may not faint after liquefaction._

 _(Results may vary.)_

Maya didn't feel the same as Lilith did, in part due to the fact that she was not connected to the Vault or Eridium on as grand a scale, although she could tell that this one housed an entity more powerful than any of them had ever faced before. Charming.

 _ **Maya the Siren**_

 _First the worst; second the best._

Meanwhile, Axton had mixed thoughts. Truthfully, he was still a little annoyed about Matt lying to them, but the Commando understood the reason – his reaction being chief among them. However, knowing now only served to distract, keeping his head out of the game; instances like that could very easily end up with you dead.

The Vault Hunter felt his turret pad in his back pocket, silently mentally preparing himself for the ensuing slaughter that he very much hoped would not come to pass. Dying wasn't on his bucket list, and for good reason too.

 **Axton the Commando**

 _Four-year turretiversary._

Caine could be as arrogant as he wanted, it wasn't going to change that his endeavours with the Vault were dangerous in every way.

Matt maintained a constant eye on him, too, so if he wanted to take a few moments to cherry-pick certain _amenities_ , the Anomaly would notice and crucify him for it. However, taking anything inside seemed like a fool's crusade now, since he had been fired from Gemini – the company who tasked him with it, to begin with – _and_ his rival had actually taken the time to offer him a place with the Crimson Raiders.

Although, Caine would never _tell_ Matt that he was grateful for presenting him with somewhere to go after his termination from Gemini. Had he won against Matt, then yes, it wouldn't be thinking this, but his loss was mostly his own fault than Matt's.

He surprised himself by how accepting he was about it. Though these thoughts would never reach Matt himself, God forbid if it did.

 **Caine Brooke the Explosions Master**

 _Boom, boom, pow._

Zer0 remained as composed as he usually was, with a sniper held comfortably between his hands and a remarkably straight posture.

His sleek armoured bodysuit had recently been polished, and his black visor shone in the Pandoran sunlight; not a speck of blood lay on his armour, but it wouldn't take long for this to change. More than likely, he would come out of this escapade redder than Lilith's hair.

 **Zer0 the Assassin**

 _1/0 = ?_

Of course, Mordecai was the other sniper, carrying his slag rifle strapped to his back. The Hunter sighed unnoticeably, trying to gain some semblance of equanimity and understanding before he went on to fight another Vault Monster.

 _Third one going!_ He chuckled to himself. _If only Blood coulda been here…well, at least I got Talon. But she's in her cage in Sanctuary._

Truthfully, Mordecai wasn't particularly worried about this whole business; he believed Matt when he said that he would not let him die. They understood each other well, after they had spoken, shortly after the Anomaly's fight with Caine. Death was ever looming, but it would have to wait: this was more important.

 **Mordecai the Hunter**

 _Unleash the Birdemic!_

Brick cracked his knuckles with the intimidation beyond most, his height adding exponentially to the threat he visually presented.

Visions of future death were just that: visions. Brick wasn't expecting to die, and while he knew confidence could sometimes be a burden, it also would not helpful to be worried about your potential death. He didn't want to distract, or waver, his concentration, and instead wanted to smash stuff up.

 **Brick the Berserker**

 _Puts the "laughter" in "slaughter"._

Salvador already had a Vault to his name, so he was pleased that he would gain another one. To have taken down two Vaults, on his beautiful home planet, no less, was a fairly large achievement, and he was proud to be getting there.

While Sal wasn't known for multi-layered thoughts, and was mainly trained on killing as much as physically possible, even he had been affected by Matt's reveal of his prophecy. Of course, the Vault Hunter wouldn't show it, but he wondered what it would mean if he died, or if his friends died. It wasn't a fun thought, so he aimed not to allow it to happen, as Matt had promised.

 **Salvador the Gunzerker**

 _All out of bubble gum._

Krieg's second voice was gravely ordering him that he would end this if he killed an undeserving, and that if the renewed-Vault Hunter risked death, then it would not be worth it.

He had been trapped on Lima Base One on Elpis for too long, and if it hadn't been for Matt, he likely still would. It was fortuitous that they had crossed paths when they did, if Gaige had not been kidnapped, the Anomaly would have had no reason to even go to LB1. Worse yet, Krieg probably wouldn't have escaped, and never would've reconciled. It was a certain ripple effect.

 **Krieg the Psycho**

 _Diagnosed with fiery halitosis._

The Vault Hunters, along with their allied soldiers, walked with bated breath, passing through the portal onto the stony platform. The pathway was large, extending out to a massive arena, with thick walls that rose up as if they were to present seats, like from a stadium, but none were there. The arena itself curved, bending around the interior of the Vault, accommodating for those brave (or foolish) enough to fight in, which Matt supposed he was thankful for.

Eridian statues stood proudly on podiums placed on the walls, at certain points around the circular platform. They did not cry lava; they were moulded into varying poses, many of which exemplified power and influence.

The entire thing floated impossibly, swimming in an endless void of purple Eridian energy beyond what the eye could distinguish. Outlying past them were random floating blocks of stone, most of which were cut perfectly and neatly.

It proved to be somewhat difficult for the entire force of the army to carefully walk onto the platform, without falling off. There was no border and the panels had neat cut, making it entirely probable that one of them may slip, and fall to what would likely be their death. As well as that, once all of them had entered, the pathway disappeared into blue particles behind them with each step onto the next panel.

There was constant rumbling about the Vault, which almost knocked them off their feet. As they got closer to the arena, the louder and louder it got, and it slowly started to morph into a more distinct of sound of metal breaking. It sounded like they were being shoved out, and further rumbling was caused from the pressurized shockwaves of the force being applied.

'Whatever _that_ is,' Lilith pointed out. 'It doesn't sound too happy.'

Duly, her point was proven when they arrived inside the arena. There was oddly humane growling, which gave Matt flashbacks to his nightmare oh so long ago.

Then, something dropped down.

It was completely black, aside from a glowing dark purple gem in the centre of what was probably its forehead. It was like staring into midnight itself, of which Matt couldn't help but fight against falling gently into. The being struggled at first, trying to maintain a somewhat corporeal form; blackness slightly evaporated off the side, before it was able to regain its countenance. "Humanoid" seemed but a feeble word in hopes of accurate description, as though all of the words in any language put together could not grasp the nature of the creature that stood before them.

There was no way to think of it as anything other than strange, its gold glowing eyes fetching an aura of intrusive observation, as though there were details it knew about them that it shouldn't.

It was a face but it wasn't; it was living but dead. No way of mistaking its unclear features, yet it possessed ulterior aspects uncertain to the eye. Coldness emanated from it, apart from the gem at the top, which was only the part oozing natural light. In a way, it was inviting, but the bitter indifference it advertised cast aside the warmth in place of bleak embodiment.

The dying light it imposed was sucked out like a vacuum, leaving its form the darkest shade of infinite blackness. It not presented by light entering the eyes, but noticeable absence of it, like the dark spots on old video footage, but much larger and more encompassing than a black hole.

Matt could see why, in other perceptions of reality, this was the end.

 **The Dreamer**

 _Night, night._

Thereby, it announced its name.

 _The Dreamer…_ he thought. _This is…the Vault of the Dreamer…_

 **Health: ?**

The Anomaly's eyes widened beyond belief.

 _Well that seems promising…_

With all circumstances involved, it was hard to stay focussed. Or fearless. The Dreamer had an unknown health level, meaning it was far beyond the likes of Dexiduous the Invincible, or Master Gee.

So hesitation was expected. However, none came. The Vault Hunters and their soldiers unleashed their attacks upon the Dreamer, who was becoming agitated. Most bullets went straight through it, with only certain E-Techs and the odd one here and there seemed to hit the shadowy form of the creature.

The Dreamer muttered unintelligible phrases, before forming a black fist and smashing down on the ground. It created a massive shockwave, accentuated by particles of darkness reverberating outwards. The force of the shockwave threw them up in the air, and Matt looked around him, noticing Brick and Aurora being propelled out the arena.

He slowed time without a moment's notice, using his freefall to move himself slowly, and running up the wall. Quickly, Matt jumped out to them, and desperately pushed them back into the arena. He managed to, and was just about able to grab onto the side of the arena, hanging off it with an iron grip. Time resumed normal speed.

Relieved, the Anomaly began to climb up. Aurora offered him a hand, which the Vault Hunter took, and made his way onto the top of the arena border.

'What the hell is this thing?' She asked him.

'The Dreamer,' he replied. 'Its name is "the Dreamer".'

'I can _see_ that,' the Revolverslinger said, with bitter angst. She sighed. 'Sorry. This is just tough.' Her best friend put a hand on her shoulder.

'You'll be fine, just don't stress,' the Vault Hunter assured her. He jumped down to continue in the fight. 'These things are _never_ easy.' Aurora nodded, and jumped back into the arena, where the others were fighting. She reloaded her revolver, and began firing at the creature.

It seemed to take slight damage, collapsing into a mess of shadow. However, the Dreamer just used this to its advantage, and used his particles to smack into them, throwing the backwards, before reforming and conjuring a purple beam from its gem. It scanned the area with its beam, causing slag damage at anyone caught in the crosshairs.

Quickly, the Vault Monster changed, and sprouted extra limbs out of its back like a spider's. The limbs moved fast, and deflected bullets back them faster than most of them could distinguish, and dealt more damage when they hit. Matt dodged them, but it was hit against the wall by an unsuspecting extra limb that had formed outside of his vision.

He got up in time to see Lilith Phaseblasting the Dreamer. The Dreamer became visibly irritated by this move, and it appeared obvious it was about to take action against. Matt knew he was too weak to reactivate his Chronokinesis, not so quickly after he had used it. He frantically looked around, and a soldier helpfully passed him a knife. With precision, Matt threw the knife towards the Vault Monster, and it hit the gem in the centre of its forehead, dislodging it ever so slightly.

Further annoyed, the Dreamer paused in its attempt to rip Lilith into two pieces, looked towards Matt. It transformed into shadowy streaks, moving swiftly over to where he was. The Anomaly had little time to do anything other than jump out of the way, but the Vault Monster caught him mid-air.

The Dreamer looked at him with deeply gold glowing eyes, pulling him close to his face.

 **'** **Anomaly…'** it acknowledged, causing the Vault Hunter furrow his brow in confusion.

 _It…knows me…?_

'What… _who_ are you?' Matt demanded. All he got in response was a harsh, gruff grunt. The Dreamer suddenly froze, and electric bolts spread across the Vault Monster's dark surface, dropping Matt. Looking up, he realized that Deathtrap had thrown had a ball of electricity, as commanded by Gaige.

The Dreamer became more agitated at this, and growled back her, before hurtling two of its tentacles at her and Deathtrap. Matt got up, straining himself to use his Chronokinesis, and moved both of them out of the way.

 _It's weak to…_

'Shock!' Matt called out loud to his fellow peers. 'He's weak to electricity. Everyone: get out your shock weapons!'

Everyone nodded, and took out various weapons with the corresponding elemental damage type. Zer0 and Mordecai produced Storm snipers, while Gaige and Aurora had respective Commerces, Caine begrudgingly took out an Atlas purple-rarity shock weapon, Brick kept a pistol close, Lilith did the same, and the rest of them produced shock weapons suitable for the situation. **(A/N: I know that the Storm isn't a good weapon in the game, but looks cool when it's being fired. [Plus the community patch adds the Commerce's skin to it so it looks awesome.])** However, when they fired, it did not slow the Dreamer that much.

 _It must be growing some sort of resistance to shock damage._ The Anomaly narrowed his eyes in thought. _And it already seems resistant to slag too._

'This tactic won't work for long,' the Vault Hunter warned Gaige. 'It's adapting.'

The Anomaly fired his shock Veruc, promptly throwing a slag Transfusion grenade to triple damage and heal from it simultaneously. The Vault Monster appeared to weakening but the health bar remained the same.

 **HP: ?**

The Dreamer leant forward again, and attempted to focus another purple beam from the centre of his head. The beam formed, but it inordinately refracted through the gem, and hit in several directions. Most of it aimed towards where it desired, but it also hit in other positions, dangerous to itself and them.

 _Could it be possible to dislodge that?_

It was a tactic that was probable, but he didn't quite know how to do it. His knife had been shattered by throwing it at the gem, so he didn't have any other weapon. The other soldiers likely would, but it would take effort to remove it and use of Chronokinesis would strain him severely.

With complete subversion of his plan, the Dreamer expanded in shape, covering the whole arena in absolute darkness. The Vault Hunters looked on in awe and shock, brains all trying to formulate a plan to adapt to the situation. Unfortunately, the situation was complicated further by the emergence of shadowy soldiers with guns and swords.

 _Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me…_ The Anomaly groaned in his head. Matt swapped his weapon and took out his Double Anarchy. The shadow soldiers fired, and their bullets hurt enough for Matt to want to get behind cover. There were several stone piles that had now landed into the arena, after having been blown off by the Dreamer's inaccurate beam.

A few shadow soldiers attacked him in close combat with their swords, and Matt was forced to move out of cover. With difficulty, he moved out of the way of their strikes ineffectively, grazing his arms from sharp blades every so often. The Anomaly winced at it, but ignored his rapidly depleting shield in favour of responding with swift effectiveness. Once the shadows' health fell to zero, they dissipated into purple-black fog, which rose back up to the dark black sky that was the Dreamer.

Bullets flew everywhere towards the remaining shadow troopers, eventually causing them to dissipate back to the Dreamer as well. At one point, Salvador Gunzerked two Topneeas to rapidly dispatch the soldiers.

Growling emitted from the Dreamer, as it reformed back into its large dark moss with deep gold eyes.

'We need to hit the gem on its head!' Matt alerted them, pointing to the purple jewel loose on its forehead.

It grabbed Zer0 and Mordecai, and hold them like insignificant twigs, before leaning in to chew off Zer0's head. However, the Assassin had taken into account his battle with the Gemini Vault Hunters. He threw a kunai to distract the Dreamer, before throwing down a holographic copy and easing out of the Vault Monster's grip.

Lilith hurled a few Phaseblasts at the Dreamer, allowing Mordecai to jump out of his other hand. As he did, the Hunter threw a Storm Front and fired a few bullets at its jewel. Most of the bullets deflected off it, but the odd one caused notable damage to it, annoying the Dreamer enough to want to throw him away. Mordecai hit the side of the arena, knocking him out.

'Mordecai!' Lilith and Brick yelled, running over to him worriedly. The loud uproar woke him up easily.

'I'm fine; I'm fine,' he insisted. 'All the shouting woke me up…' They kneeled down beside him to see if he was indeed alright.

'Something's _definitely_ bleeding…' Lilith examined. Mordecai laughed at her vague summary.

The Dreamer seemed unconvinced that it had inflicted enough injury, so it threw a few shards of darkness towards them. Matt used his Chronokinesis, doubling his diminishing returns, and deflecting them. It comically created a border around the three original Vault Hunters, largely leaving them unscathed.

Lilith nodded to him, and he nodded back. The Berserker and the Siren helped the Hunter up, and supported him until he was comfortable enough to move on his own.

Matt ran over to Gaige.

'That gem's coming loose, but it's still gonna need some more firepower for it to fall off,' the Vault Hunter informed her.

'What even is it?' She asked.

' _No_ idea,' he admitted. 'But it _certainly_ doesn't like it when we shoot at it.'

'And why does it sound so… _human?'_

'Not a clue. But it's definitely alien.'

The Dreamer changed form once again, this time into something reminiscent of a worm, or snake. It manoeuvred around the arena in a matter of seconds, barrelling forcefully into them, breaking their shield instantly and depleting about a quarter of their health. Noticeably, the gem moved to further inside its head.

 _Damn it!_ The Anomaly exclaimed in his head. _How the hell are we supposed to hit it now?_

The Dreamer shifted its attack pattern slightly, moving from one side of the arena to the other, forcing the Vault Hunters and soldiers to jump over it. They narrowly succeeded and barely avoided damage.

Matt fired with all his bullets in a vain effort to try and hit the crystal that the Dreamer was apparently so protective of. The Vault Monster became thoroughly aggravated at the soldiers' attempts, and unpredictably began meandering erratically, hitting many of the soldiers again, killing a fair few of them before the Anomaly could even react. The Vault Hunter was thrown back, and hit his head, disorientating him slightly.

Maya and Axton were thrown towards one of the statues, which cracked it. Matt could see it was about to collapse on them. Equipped with faster reflexes thanks to her training, Maya was able to Phaselock the largest, most threatening, of rock, preventing it from squashing them. Axton also threw down his turret, generating a shield around it, protecting them further.

Recovering from the blow to his head, Matt breathed a sigh of relief and got up off the ground. Deathtrap flew over to him and restored his shield. He smiled at it, but the robot gave no discernible response.

Eyeing his health, the Anomaly threw a few more slag Transfusion grenades and one slag Bouncing Bonny to maintain slag on the Dreamer and increase damage. It still wasn't clear how much health it had left, although it was evidently much weaker than it was when the battle began. Still, this fight was difficult.

The Dreamer was definitely waning, as shown by its increased aggression. It split into two copies of itself, one with the purple jewel, and the other without. The jewel-less one targeted Matt immediately, likely aware that he was the main person aiming at the loosening gem. It picked him up once again, breathing deeply in his face, as though it was considering carefully what to do next.

 **'** **Rye…'** the duplicate Dreamer called. It knew him. **'Blood of the remorseful; heart of a dreamer.'**

Matt could not be more confused. For the Vault Monster to address him in this way made little sense to him; the Dreamer called the Anomaly a dreamer as well, which was perhaps the most confusing part. The closest thing he could associate with it were his prognostic dreams, which would often cryptically forewarn him.

There was something behind those golden eyes, as well. Mostly, it was imperceptible, but Matt could see a slight glimmer of sapient thought behind them, which intrigued him to look even closer and examine every –

The Dreamer interrupted his thought process by dropping him and reforming with its other counterpart. The Anomaly tried shooting its duplicate, but his bullets went right through the darkness, and the Vault Monster didn't even acknowledge the puny attempt. The Dreamer disappeared for a few moments, its dark fog-liquid form dissipating into the remaining statues, resulting in their eyes gaining a black aura.

Aware that it would not be long before it reappeared again, Matt sprinted over to the remaining soldiers (which weren't many) and the Vault Hunters.

'We're never going to remove that gem on our own,' he told them.

'I know,' Lilith replied. 'We need a plan.'

'And ideas?' Axton wondered out loud to all of them. 'We're on a bit of a time crunch here.'

'Perhaps distraction / It could be our best option / It seemed to work before,' Zer0 suggested, eliciting nods and murmurs of agreement from them.

'We might be able to do it,' one of the Crimson Raiders suggested, looking over to the army of ex-Gemini. 'With some of their help too, we might just be able to momentarily overwhelm the Dreamer in time for the rest of you aim at it.'

'That's suicide,' the Anomaly warned.

'All in a day's work,' the soldier replied light-heartedly.

'I've already got most of you guys killed!'

'Not you,' an ex-Gemini Conquistador assured. 'The Dreamer did that. Besides, we wouldn't have signed up for this if we didn't think death was a likely possibility.'

Matt understood that. His experience with the KMO was exactly the same. Death was a constant probability for any of them, and guilelessly, it was a miracle that most of them even survived their first day. Although, the Krolantian Military Order was sanctioned by Krolantia's government, so if one person died, it would a day or two before someone else would take up the role, as though nothing had ever happened. This was different; the Crimson Raiders and the soon-to-be Raiders were an exhausted resource. Not many of them remained and eventually their workforce would have depleted.

As much a problem as it was, to send them to essentially kill themselves, there was no other option. Matt hated to have to think immorally, but right now, employing strategy was more important that being moral.

'If you _really_ want to do this,' he accepted. There were unanimous nods about them.

'I can throw down some holograms as well,' Dan added. 'That might help too.'

'We got this, Matt,' Gaige reassured him.

'No Vault Hunter has died yet, despite what your prophecy foretold,' Maya added. 'That's gotta amount to something.' That did at least make him feel slightly better. Caine seemed agitated, however.

'I hate all these pep talks,' he complained.

'They work well enough, don't they?' Arcturus pointed out.

'Hmpf…bored now,' Violet groaned. 'I'm not sure that thing feels pain anyway…'

'Do we even know what shooting off that jewel will do?' Duke enquired hopelessly.

'We don't have time to argue over this!' Matt pointed out. He was soon proven correct, when the Dreamer reappeared once more, apparently having exited its healing phase. The Anomaly and the rest of the Vault Hunters nodded to the soldiers, and they nodded back, before rushing towards the Dreamer.

'CHARGE!' One of them exclaimed. The Vault Monster seemed marginally unimpressed at their attempt, but nonetheless shifted towards them to meet its attackers. At the same time, Matt and his group of Vault Hunters ran behind the Dreamer, trying to find an opening while it was distracted.

'Deathtrap might be able to get a few swipes in,' Gaige suggested, trying not to be so loud as to alert the Dreamer, but loud enough to be over the vociferous gunfire.

'I could use my Chronokinesis to give you guys a boost,' the Anomaly added.

'There are my wind funnels and Caine's explosions too,' Vaus contributed.

'My light beams might be able to deal enough damage to it,' Violet pitched in, proud of herself for her involvement.

'We got three snipers including myself,' Duke said. 'I'm pretty sure at least _one_ of us can score a critical.'

'My fists should allow us an opening,' Brick realised. 'As long as I hit 'im hard enough.'

'Some of it ain't physical, amigo,' Salvador warned him. 'You'd have to careful where ya hit him!'

'I'll be fine,' the Berserker replied confidently.

A team of incredulous force, put together in haphazard metamorphosis, would definitely get the job done, of which required excessive toil and sacrifice. Matt was certain of the small window of time they could execute the latter plan, and achieve the desired result. The soldiers hadn't volunteered to detriment themselves, essentially, for the Vault Hunters to not respect it and at least try. Besides, they may not be able to defeat the Dreamer if they did not remove the mysterious gem attached insecurely to its head – whatever it was.

Brick charged towards first, prompting his peers to follow close behind. Caine used his explosions and Arcturus used his wind funnels beside him, both advancing at the same speed. Violet remained close behind them, but not quite as fast as them, and her light beams were straining to maintain at such an intensity. Matt used his Chronokinesis to catch up with Brick, and stayed close behind him, in order to give him a sufficient boost when needed.

'That boost would be nice!' Brick requested, and, after deciphering his slowed down speaking, Matt obliged, picking him up and throwing him. The Berserker was launched, and the Anomaly took this time to grab Duke, Zer0 and Mordecai, and place them closer to the Dreamer, in order for a better shot.

'Those teeth would look better smashed!' The Berserker taunted, as he threw a forceful punch towards the Vault Monster. The Dreamer was thrown back at excessive speed, at first by the shockwave and then by the actual punch itself. Brick succeeded in hitting a physical area on the Dreamer's face, and it created an opening for the other Vault Hunters to fire. So, they fired at the jewel with all the firepower they had.

The Dreamer emitted an ear-splitting roar, and it was nearly impossible for the Vault Hunters to maintain their focus, but they had to. Their eardrums felt close to bursting, and they were slightly feared for the possibility of damaging their hearing irreversibly.

Matt's lightning intensified, getting stronger and stronger as he propelled himself towards the purple gem. The Anomaly leant his hand out towards it, and his black and red lightning seemed attracted to it, and gravitated to it the closer he got. Like a crawling spider, his lightning made contact with the gem, and there was a blinding nova of red light. It threw them back with force, throwing several Crimson Raiders and ex-Gemini off the arena, and slamming the Vault Hunters against the arena wall.

'Ugh…' There were groans of pain about them constantly, as they attempted to lift themselves off the ground and deal with the injuries they just sustained.

'What the _hell_ just happened?' Aurora demanded, a hand to her head. The Anomaly looked up towards the Vault Monster, and did not like what he was seeing.

'Matt touched it, and then…there was an explosion,' Axton realised.

'But why would…?' Gaige began, but found her headache was too much for her to finish her sentence.

'Um...guys?' Matt addressed them with confusion and worry in his voice. They got up and turned to see what he was calling them about.

The Dreamer's gem lay inert on the floor by it, cracked down the middle by the Anomaly's lightning. Purple light was leaking out of it, while the rest of it had become a dark purple, a contrast to the lighter purple from before, and completely dislodged from its respective owner.

The Dreamer itself was erratic, unstable and seemingly struggling to keep its form. Instead of an unclear but evidently uniform appearance, it was all over the place and constantly going static. It could barely maintain itself, but it seemed to gather enough resolve to charge towards the Vault Hunters.

Matt's eyes widened.

'We gotta move!' He yelled, and they forced themselves through their pain to jump out of the way.

The Dreamer collided with the wall, and became a pile of dark ash-like fog, before reforming into an erratic monster with little sense of direction or control. It was as though a flip had been switched, and the being's higher brain functions had turned off, or as if the gem was…

 _Like its brain…_ Matt realized. He glanced over to the jewel. _Was that gem controlling it or something…?_

On the subject of unanswerable questions, this was high-priority, but that only worsened Matt's burning desire to know the truth. Above all else, he did not want to receive smoke in mirrors; there had been too much of that over his hunt for the Vault of the Dreamer, and the Anomaly could hardly handle it anymore. It was amongst its own sea of demand and exasperation, in which Matt was hopelessly drowning.

Matt ran over to the gem, and picked it up. The glow was fading, but still present. He leant in, and there were vague musings and whispers being emitted – none of which the Vault Hunter could accurately discern. Abruptly, it struck him that this gem served a purpose far greater than a mere external brain unit did. No, no…the gem didn't just _control_ it…

The Anomaly emitted strong black and red lightning, causing the gem to become brighter and return to its purple hue. The Dreamer turned sharply towards him, with an inhuman hiss. It knew what he was doing. Cracks splintered across its surface, and the Vault Monster snaked its way towards him. Matt reacted, throwing the jewel up in the air, and directing his lightning towards the mysterious gem.

Upon contact, it froze in mid-air, and shattered.

…The gem also predicated its existence, and maintained it. It was damaged by their fruitful attempt to dislodge it, which had resulted in the Dreamer's molecular instability. The crack down the middle didn't just deactivate its higher brain functions, it also began a splintering process within the Dreamer's atoms – splitting them apart and making the whole structure unstable.

'What's it doing?' Aurora asked, looking puzzled at the state of affairs.

'The gem maintained its molecular structure!' Matt explained. 'It's being torn apart molecule by molecule!'

Indeed, the Dreamer was splitting apart, unable to maintain a physical form. It stumbled towards them, trying, with one last ditch attempt, to kill one of them. A shadowy spike shot out, but Matt did not believe it could hit any one of them before it dissolved.

He was wrong.

The spike penetrated through someone, who took in a sharp intake of breath, attempting to manage with the pain and shock of being stabbed. The Dreamer itself then collapsed into a heap of shadowy mist, no longer inhabited by a mind. Matt looked to his right, trying to examine the situation. He could not comprehend what he found.

Gaige dropped to the floor, dying rapidly.

* * *

 **God, I am evil.**

 **Yes, Gaige isn't doing too well. Brilliant cliff-hanger.**

 **So the next chapter is the last one. I am pretty certain on that. I highly doubt it will get so long I have to split it. A lot** ** _does_** **happen in the last chapter, but most of it goes by quite quickly. If I** ** _do_** **plan on writing a sequel, I have a pretty good idea on where it will go, but I will have to see.**

 **See you then!**


	35. Apotheosis

**Well then…it's certainly been an eventful month for Borderlands, now hasn't it? Borderlands 3 has had some reveals about it, namely the characters – whom I quite like. The whole 'Children of the Vault' thing sounds pretty cool, to be perfectly honest with you, although we'll have to wait and see what that entails.**

 **Meanwhile, I've been in the background, silently typing away with this chapter that took me so long to finally finish. I had exams to do recently, which took up most of my time, but I** ** _did_** **manage to keep on writing this when I had spare time. I'm at the final chapter, I couldn't stop now.**

 **Not to mention it's nearly Christmas and I spent some time finding some presents for my family and getting cards for them and my friends (yes, I have some).**

 **But this is the final chapter. And it's appropriately long. If I ever have time to actually write up a sequel, I will, but it'll of course be sometime in 2019.**

 **Also I got a review saying that "there only 6 Sirens in the universe at one time, not just the world", which I don't quite understand, but if they're just getting confused by Matt's half-Siren nature, then I get it. Matt's being half-Siren doesn't count him as one of the six, as he was artificially manufactured to become one. However, he still has the same rules that Sirens do in the way their powers work (that'll be revealed more in this chapter) since an actual Siren, Angel, was used to make him a Siren-Human hybrid.**

 **Anyways, enough waffling, let's go an conclude this story already!**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirty-Five: Apotheosis**

* * *

Shock and despair. These were far from novelties to Matt Rye. They were commoners, ones that long overstayed their welcome. He was sick of it, to be perfectly honest, and for once in his life he wished the universe would grant him at least one happy ending at some point in his life. The universe would make an IOU note for that, but the Vault Hunter supposed at this point there were several notes. If it even planned on delivering, that is.

'Gaige!' He ran over to her body. She was still alive, for now.

'Well…' the Mechromancer struggled to say, managing a slight smile. 'Always was slow to react…'

'No, no, no…you're not dying now. Not after everything I've done to prevent it,' Matt declared, although he knew no way to rectify her incoming demise.

'Death is inevitable, Matt…' Gaige mused weakly. 'And when you learn not to fear it – that's when you can accept it. Not gonna lie, I _am_ gonna miss ya all. And you know I love you. But it's the end for me.'

Before another word could be uttered, the Mechromancer went limp in his arms. Her eyes shut, with the very last vestiges of her energy, before life faded from her body completely. Matt didn't say a word. The tears flowing from his eyes said enough.

Loss was an ineffable feeling. Even for someone who had felt it more than others, Matt could not describe it. That was because loss was not an emotion. Loss was the lack of emotion and ability to respond appropriately. It was emptiness in its purest form, as though every ounce of happiness inside you had been drained, leaving absolutely nothing behind. Furthermore, it was though a vampire had sucked all the blood out of you, and you could literally feel yourself going pale. And the entire world felt distant.

'Simply telling you "I'm sorry" wouldn't help here, I understand that, Matt,' Lilith said, breaking the established silence. The Anomaly turned towards her, acknowledging her attempt. 'But I will tell you this: it wasn't your fault.'

'She always said you were a hero,' Axton added. Matt looked at him with calm aggression.

'This isn't a world for heroes and villains,' he decisively told him. 'This is not a place for a better man. Who's the baddest or best doesn't matter. That's not what this world needs. What it needs, more than anything, is someone who understands.' They listened to what he said, trying to take in what he meant. He stood up, carefully laying Gaige's dead body on the floor, and walked towards the centre of the arena.

A podium rose out of the ground, where an Eridian artefact was mounted. Matt took it out of the stand, and activated it. It glowed purple. The Vault Hunters looked confused as to what he planned to do with it. He aimed it up in the air, and a purple beam shot out of it.

With enough focus, the Anomaly focused it, reversing its flow and directing it upon itself. The artefact overloaded it. He threw it to Caine.

'It's temporarily overloaded,' he explained. 'It'll adapt and become stronger. You can kill everyone here without taking a scratch. You can take over the entire Medusa sector and no one would be able to challenge you.' Caine raised an eyebrow. 'Gaige understood that evil was something created by us to justify acts we went against. She believed that there was an ounce of goodness in all hearts. So if you believe in that, you'll do the right thing. If not, you can do whatever you want. I won't judge you for either.'

Caine looked at both him and the artefact, contemplating his decision. There were a few pregnant seconds where no one knew what choice he would make, or why Matt had even presented him with it.

After hefty decision-making, the Explosions Master rose the artefact to his eye, then at their surroundings, before throwing it halfway across the arena. With the least amount of reluctance ever displayed before, he stepped towards Matt and shook his hand.

'As much as I may hate to admit it,' he began, showing he still had some arrogant nature. 'She was a clever girl.' That nature of arrogance was proved not to be the only side of him. 'Maybe you're right. And there's redemption in all of us. I'll just have to prove it.'

'Thank you,' Matt responded earnestly.

What they had not noticed, however, was the purple mist escaping from the shattered crystal forming into something else. There was a rumble about the Vault, shaking them aggressively and catching them off-guard. Matt spun around to see the purple Eridium-like mist combining.

Reality seemed to warp itself, as though a rip in the fabric of the universe had formed and expanded. There was bright flash of purple, and the Vault Hunters were thrown on the ground once again.

'I have done my best to lead us towards this moment, Matt,' a voice declared, booming throughout the arena.

'No…no…no,' the Anomaly mumbled out loud. He glanced around at his allies worriedly. 'No…I know that voice. But…it can't be…'

'Who is it?' Maya asked him, but he just continued to stare back, eyes frozen in shock and fear, giving no response. 'Matt, _who. Is. It?'_ Matt got up from the ground, clenching his fists in fury, finally deciding the action he should take.

'I see you've collected some new Vault Hunter friends,' the voice continued. It sounded feminine in nature and pitch. And sweet. 'As expected. Birds of a feather flock together, and so do pigs and swine. The ra –'

'The rats and mice have had their choice and so will I have mine,' the Anomaly finished, as the purple mist finally formed a body. 'Going for a classic? I used to sing you that rhyme when we were kids.'

It was young, that of a teenager, only about seventeen. It had brown hair, and hazel eyes, with a smile that beamed innocent beyond comprehension. A young girl. That was all she seemed to be.

'Amelia…Elizabeth… _Rye,_ ' Matt addressed, causing the other Vault Hunters to look at each other in utter shock and confusion.

'Since the day I was born,' Amelia replied robotically, despite the comment being one that would normally elicit emotion.

'But I thought she was _dead!'_ Caine exclaimed loudly.

'Yeah, Commander Sharp ordered an assassin to shoot her in the head!' Arcturus added.

'Must've been painless,' Violet, almost automatically, supplemented.

'You said you'd been seeing her in your dreams,' Aurora recalled to Matt. 'But I didn't think that meant…'

'You found yourself within the Dream,' Amelia explained. 'The telepathic field of the Dreamer and its consciousness.'

'And _you_ are its consciousness,' the Anomaly realized.

'Not exactly. The Dreamer requires a host to function. I am its host. I control it primarily through the gem that you destroyed; you were of course correct in that it maintains its molecular structure, but destroying it merely released the soul inside.'

'But you told me you knew nothing about the Vault!' Matt argued.

'Tactical deception,' she waved off dismissively. 'I required you not to ask questions whilst we communicated.'

'You lied to me!' The Vault Hunter persisted, shaking his head in denial. 'How did this even happen?'

'The Genisys Project,' his sister explicated rather simply. 'It turned you into a Siren-human hybrid. A very powerful metamorphosis, which revitalized my very soul. It connected you to the Infinite.' There was that word again. 'It's a bottomless dimension of pure energy. Sirens draw from it. Eridium is a calcified version of it. Eridians figured out a way to harness it. The Vault of the Dreamer exists within it. This is why Sirens are present throughout the universe. They are the means of balancing the equation between the Infinite, and any other dimension.'

'And because you host the Dreamer, you can directly tap into its full power?' Lilith deduced. Amelia nodded.

'This world trembles at my feet. My soul abandon roams here, a figment of dreamt creation itself. I am the Dreamer, for I control the dream. I am all the infinite, and all the none. I am the one, but I am not the one. I am the positive; I am the negative. I harbour the good, but I fester the evil. I am a true dichotomy.'

'This is madness,' Matt surmised. 'This means that you knew everything that was going to happen.'

'Your prophetic dreams were of my own creation,' his sister told him. The Vault Hunter looked back up at her with an indiscernible expression. 'You required confliction to draw you towards the Vault. I could not simply communicate with you; at first, I could, but our connection waned over time. Gaige became the missing link.'

'Then _you_ are the reason of her death!' The Anomaly accused, disregarding Amelia's power and running in to attack her. He leaped towards her, but she merely stuck out a hand, and Matt was frozen in mid-air.

'You ignore reason, brother,' Amelia warned, with as little emotion ever displayed by any living being ever.

'You aren't my sister,' the Anomaly denounced. 'You're a consciousness tainted by the Infinite, using my sister's body as a flesh puppet. You're like a ventriloquist.' He seemed so disgusted, yet Amelia only rose an eyebrow at this.

'We are bound by blood,' she factually replied, releasing her hold on him.

'Who are you?' The Anomaly enquired in horror. 'You're not the Amelia Rye _I_ knew.'

'I am here for one purpose,' his sister ignored his plight. 'You.' The Anomaly's eyes widened. 'You have done well, brother. The Vault is vanquished. Your past has been redeemed. But there is one more thing left: your soul must be redeemed. You must join me in the Infinite.'

'Why the fuck would I do that?' Matt demanded bitterly. 'Gaige is dead because of you. I have spent so long in misery and hardship just for your godforsaken endgame. I was being played right from the beginning. And here I am, confronted by the puppet master herself, and you expect me to be compliant?'

'I expected you to understand the reasoning.'

'Oh I understand it,' Matt ensured derisively. 'I just don't agree with it. This manipulation – it's the very thing I have spent half my life fighting against. It's the lowest form of evil. Acting behind the scenes because you want your puppets to act a certain way – there's nothing good or righteous in that; it's selfish.'

'There is no good and evil,' Amelia replied categorically. 'There is only the Infinite.'

'Tell me why I shouldn't just rid the world of you right now,' the Anomaly demanded inordinately. His sister let out something of a snarl, but it was mostly indescribable as a human action, although done through human muscle vibrations.

'I cannot die. I am the Infinite.'

'That's not what I meant.'

'I wish to be enlightened, brother.'

Matt began pacing in his usual manner, which told his fellow Vault Hunters that he'd figured something out. He gestured jovially, although it was clear the matter was serious to him.

'You know what's on my mind, Amy?' The Anomaly enquired to her, to which she rose an eyebrow. 'You're practically God. So I wondered, why not force my hand? Quite literally, why don't you override my will? It would make this faster, would it not?'

'I suggest you cease this –'

'Hush now, the grown-ups are talking,' Matt interrupted, which elicited sniggers from his allies, but he said it with pure sarcasm and mirth. 'That got me thinking just now. Sirens draw from the Infinite, as you just said, but it's not like it's no big deal harnessing it. Certainly, it requires willpower to be able to distribute it through your body and disperse it.

'So, with handy deductions, that must mean those who harness the Infinite, in any way, must use their willpower correctly, and it must be high enough, otherwise you risk it becoming unusable.' He stepped towards Amelia, his height towering over her. He pointed his index finger at her.

' _You_ harness more of the Infinite than anyone else. That must need a lot of will. Now, let's say you come across someone with greater willpower than even you – what are you to do? What _can_ you do? Answer: _nothing!_ So when you meet _me,_ when I have my head in the game that is, you're defenceless.

'Long story short: _you can't hurt me._ ' Amelia showed something that resembled worry, but she maintained a mostly stoic expression.

'Well deducted. They say you aren't known for your intelligence especially, but you should be.'

'It would also explain why you can't foresee my actions,' the Vault Hunter added. 'You have to view others' actions to get an idea. You know what they're about to do, right?' Amelia nodded one singular, robotic nod. 'And you can't stop me. Guys? Do me a favour and turn around.'

Although unsure of the reason, the Vault Hunters obliged, and turned around to face away from Matt. They could observe his actions, and Amelia, when looking into the future, could only see their backs still turned. She suddenly became scared, and displayed the most amount of expression in a long time.

'No – you _can't!'_ His sister pleaded, as the Anomaly stepped towards the shattered jewel on the ground nearby. 'I-I may not be able to _foresee_ your actions, but I can figure it out! Please! I've been stuck inside that thing for too long! I needed a way out!' She shouted, but Matt did not listen.

'This gem is attracted to Infinite energy,' he announced, leaning down next to the fragments. 'It's why it was able to contain you so well. It literally sucked you in like a black hole. Consequently, if attract it with my Infinite-based lightning' – he leant out a hand, and generated his lightning – 'it'll make the particles a little more… _excited.'_

The pieces of the gem began vibrating wildly and aggressively, like two attracted magnets. Abruptly, they fused together, recreating the gem once again, albeit with evident marks where each fragment had reconnected together.

'I thought you were about mercy!' Amelia begged, as the Anomaly walked towards her, holding the gem in his hand.

'Usually I am,' the Vault Hunter agreed. 'But you brought this upon yourself. Goodbye, Amelia.'

He stuck out the gem, now charged with Infinite energy, and rays of purple light shot out and aimed at Amelia, like chains, pulling her into the gem.

'No! No please! You-you can't do this to me! I'm your sister!'

'You did this to yourself,' the Anomaly stated conclusively.

He watched as Amelia was sucked in closer. And closer. And closer. And closer. Her finger was about to touch the gem, when she spoke again, for what Matt expected to be her last time.

'You can save her! You can end all the wars and the conflict!' It was a last ditch effort. Matt would barely have time to react anyway. He still did. For the moment, the thought overwhelmed him. It wasn't just bringing Gaige back – it was stopping the unneeded disputes between civilisations; the unfair sacrifices; the petty wars; the world-damaging arguments; all of it.

He pulled away the gem and stopped charging it with lightning.

'How?' The Anomaly demanded. 'Guys you can turn around now.' He whispered it but Amelia still heard it.

'You already said; bonding with the Infinite grants you god-like status,' she explained. 'The Infinite requires physical hosts. I don't have a physical body, but you do. You won't be able to maintain your form in this dimension for long; eventually you will have to pass over the threshold into the Infinite, but that short window should give you all the time you need.'

'What do you guys think?' The Anomaly asked them, which caught them off-guard. This seemed too personal for them to talk about.

'Would be nice to have Dusty back,' Brick absentmindedly commented. Mordecai elbowed him.

'Or _Roland,'_ the Hunter pointed out, to which Lilith adamantly nodded. He then added, very silently, 'and Bloodwing.'

'I just think it would nice if I didn't have to sleep with one eye open,' Maya commented.

'Aww, but I love killing!' Salvador cheered. 'But if there weren't conflict, then my home wouldn't have been attacked by Hyperion. My grandmother would be doing better.'

'Having an expert roboteer around always brings its bonuses,' Axton said. 'Also, there would be no need for armies. Then maybe Dahl wouldn't be as bad as it is. And my ex-wife might still talk to me.'

'UNDESERVING NO DIE!' Krieg yelled, making his presence known.

'I've been in enough battles to be sick of them,' Duke said, to which Arcturus nodded.

'As much as I love inflicting pain, it's not very nice receiving it sometimes,' Violet noted, with the most amount of sanity she had ever shown before.

'It's because of these wars and battles and disagreements that my cousin and I don't get along,' Aurora realised, turning to Dan. 'If all that was out the picture, we might able to mend our family.'

'I can't lie: that sounds really nice,' the Digi-gram admitted.

'It sounds like they are completely for it,' Amelia observed, nonplussed.

'Hang on,' Lilith interrupted. 'You also said that Matt would have to leave following this as well. He's the most effective and most powerful out of all of us; I'm not certain we would've won this fight without him. A captain is only as good as its crew. I can't just let you… _take_ him.'

'It's that or you continue to let others die,' Amelia pointed out, almost angrily.

'My entire life has been leading towards this moment,' the Anomaly recognised, a frown forming in his brow. 'To the Vault, as well. Now, that time has passed. I've fulfilled my purpose. I have no reason for existing, especially now that Gaige is gone. Besides, you killed Handsome Jack without my help. You did that on your own, _and_ you eliminated 60% of Hyperion's control over planet. Regardless of my effectiveness, you can last just fine on your own.'

'No, Matt, we need you,' Axton disputed.

'No, you don't. You just think you do. Besides, I'm not a tool to be used whenever it seems necessary or convenient: I'm a human being.'

'None of us are tools / We are all aware of that / You misjudge yourself,' Zer0 inputted.

'To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I even have a choice in the matter,' the Vault Hunter suspected. He turned to Amelia.

'If the Infinite does not receive a human host, then the universe itself may fall apart. It has spent the last few billion years lasting without one, but it cannot any longer. Not now.

'The Infinite is bleeding into this dimension, and this has triggered the emergence of Eridium. The Vault leaked Infinite energy, pulling the Infinite in towards it, resulting in the latter. Because of this, this dimension is ripping itself apart; a Big Rip event is on its way. The Infinite is absorbing all types of energy within this world, including its polar opposite, Dark energy. These two energies are volatile when combined, so if the Infinite absorbs this universe, it will become unstable and may collapse.

'You might think I should've made you aware of this from beginning, but I could not. It is out of my control what I am permitted to do, and I have only been allowed to disclose this information at this time. I also feared it would cause you great worry that the universe has slowly been decaying over the past five years.'

Matt stood silent, as he digested this information. The universe…was it truly ending? It hardly seemed conceivable that such an event appeared so close, rather than so far. The universe was roughly 13.7 billion years old, and it was expected that it would end billions upon billions of years from now.

Legends told that the Eridians may not have gone extinct per se, but they had fled, however Matt never considered it since they had seemed to have nothing to flee from. They were the most technologically advanced and powerful race ever known, and would still be if they were around today. So what would they have to flee?

Unless, of course, they foresaw the end of the universe itself. Indeed, that would be a cause for fleeing. Fleeing where, exactly? Most likely, the Infinite, since they had figured out how to harness it. It wouldn't be much safer in the Infinite though, so perhaps another dimension? Truly, it was unknown, but it all made sense now.

Furthermore, that meant that, if Matt became a physical host for the Infinite, then the Eridians could return. Whether or not that was a good or bad thing, the Anomaly did not truly know. Their intentions were never truly clear: both when they existed and at what remained of them.

'We must sustain the Infinite,' Amelia further advised, taking out a hand towards him. 'We, a one consciousness, do not wish to see any dimension destroyed. We are trying to help you.'

'If it means the universe won't end,' the Anomaly decided, 'then I'll do it.'

He took her hand, with her arm still extended, and their hands connected. Immediately, Matt could feel the Infinite surging through him, his body absorbing it from his sister, and into himself. It was almost too much for him, as he fell onto his knees, but he still maintained his grip. His Chronokinetic lightning began flickering, changing colour from red and black to a bright, Eridium purple.

Matt suddenly shot up, facing his Vault Hunter allies, as he took a sharp intake of breath. His eyes widened with shock of the power he was receiving; the colour in them burnt over from brown and gold to a pure, glowing gold radiance. He began hovering in the air above them, emitting strong winds that prevented them from moving closer to him – apart from Amelia, that was.

Instead of being literally blown away, his sister was sucked in, and purple Infinite energy began radiating off her and being absorbed by Matt. The Vault Hunters easily noticed the look of alarm on Amelia's face.

'What's going on?' Mordecai demanded from Matt's sister.

'SHINY!' Krieg screamed unhelpfully.

'He's siphoning off all the Infinite energy inside me!' Amelia exclaimed worriedly. 'No, Matt! If you take that away, I'll be powerless! This is only a temporary body! It won't last forever!'

It was unclear if Matt heard her, because he seemed to continue without a care in the world to his sister's warnings. Either that or, even more worriedly, it wasn't his choice to absorb all her energy.

There was a massive nova of gold and purple energy, throwing all the Vault Hunters back onto the ground. Amelia was thrown into the air and landed beside them. When they got to their feet, they saw a new thing, an entity no longer human, but still bearing the name of one. It maintained a still-recognisable visage, but the eyes glowed an uncharacteristic gold and cracks of this energy shuttered out from them. Its hair remained mostly untouched, apart from flecks of bright yellow nestled in between the brown. The scar that ran across its chest glowed purple underneath its shirt and battle armour, and the tips of the fingers were cracked, with Infinite energy seeping and collecting around the ligaments.

 **The Enlightener**

 _[ERROR: ANOMALY DETECTED]_

The being that stood before them was not Matt Rye. At least, not anymore. It still kept the vague outlines of the Anomaly, but its movements seemed jagged, and not completely focused at times. Who it was, exactly, was an unanswerable question, but it was clear that only a small element of Matt Rye remained in there.

 **HP: ERROR**

 _ **[Health_scaling=incorrect, hit_counter out of bounds]**_

The Enlightener looked out towards them, apparently attempting to analyse them. Within less than attosecond – an interval so small they could not distinguish it – it knew every detail there was to know about them, and added it to the pre-existing knowledge of Matt Rye in its bank of infinite recollection.

'Matt?' Lilith cautiously called out. The Enlightener's eyes snapped to her, recognising the name, aware of who it was addressing, but still looked somewhat confused.

'I am not Matt,' it claimed. 'I am the Enlightener. The consciousness of the one you speak of remains but a figment of my being. It makes up only a part of what I am.' Strangely, unlike Amelia, the voice held varied and complex patterns to it, with a capacity for abstract thought and emotion. It… _he_ wasn't emotionless in any sense of the word, but the emotions he possessed were not singularly pertaining to Matt Rye. Its voice was a strange mix between Matt's, and some warped version of it. It was alien in nature, like two separate ones haphazardly and irregularly strewn together. It was hardly real.

'Who are you?' Axton demanded, although aware he was in the presence of someone infinitely more powerful and looming than himself. To this, the Enlightener merely rose an eyebrow.

'I am the Enli–'

'No, I get that,' Axton confirmed, not fazing the being in the slightest. 'I suppose a better question is _what_ are you? What are your origins? Why are you here?'

'And most importantly,' Caine added, 'why the fuck did Matt just… _turn_ into you?'

'You're out of your depth on this matter,' the Enlightener warned, but nonetheless continued. 'But, if you must know, then I shall enlighten. I am an Eridian.' This immediately commenced silence amongst them. An actual, living, breathing Eridian - _here_? 'I serve my race as Chief Philosopher and Scientist. For that purpose, I am unique: I contain the consciousness of multiple subjects to produce one singular being. I have been trapped within the Infinite for trillions of years – long before the beginning of this universe. I am a Precursor.

'The subject Matt Rye merged with the Infinite, allowing me freedom. With word of consent, I have seized his body.'

'Wait, Matt consented to this?' Aurora enquired in confusion.

'Certainly. I wish only to convey a message. It is peace I desire. Not war. While Matt Rye has been absorbed into my consciousness, I fully intend to free him soon after. I warn you: you may have saved the universe from utter collapse, but this is not the end. The opening of the Vault five years ago has triggered a chain of events that shall lead to a war. A unimaginably large war; one you cannot possibly survive without aid.

'This war shall involve you more than you desire. All Vault Hunters will find themselves involved. I cannot aid you in preparation, as I am not permitted by the Infinite to do so. However, as you humans will be caught within this web of conflict, we Eridians see it so that you understand the dangers of the future.'

'This war…' Duke wondered aloud. 'Who are the partakers?'

'Not you, Duke Minoosh,' the Enlightener responded forthrightly, taking the Fable slightly aback. 'You planned to retire, did you not? And you, Daniel Marx. And I am not forgetting you Arcturus Vaus.' The other Vault Hunters snapped their heads in shock to them.

'You planned on retiring?!' Violet exclaimed. 'Am I the only one out of the Gemini Vault Hunters who _doesn't_ want to give up the gig?'

'I decided that it is killing me, quite frankly,' Duke admitted, eliciting nods from Dan and Vaus. 'Too many conflicts. And now another one? I am no coward, certainly not, but I have since become sick of them.'

'Hey, I gave it up after one Vault too,' Lilith confessed. 'And then…took it up again…but still, you get my point.'

'I cannot tell you who shall be the ringleaders of this war until it arrives,' the Enlightener continued, actually properly answering the question Duke asked. 'But the Medusa sector – and particularly Pandora – is the main standpoint of it.'

The Enlightener considered the presence of Amelia for a moment, clearly imagining her purpose in the future. The Eridian's eyes landed on the corpse of one Gaige the Mechromancer. He bent over, contemplating her dead body calmly.

'I understand this girl is important to Matt Rye, correct?' The Enlightener commented nonchalantly. There were nods about them.

'Yes, she most definitely is,' Aurora agreed. 'He loves her. But Amelia killed her.'

' _The Dreamer_ did, after _you_ knocked out the gem that allowed me to control it!' Amelia argued.

'Maybe you should've made it more secure,' the Revolverslinger countered.

'The Dreamer was powerful in its own right,' Amelia replied. 'It resisted control, so it took a lot of effort for the Eridians to succeed in maintaining influence over it. It's not some feral beast; it's perfectly competent.'

'Why are you defending it?' Maya pointed out, but she ignored her.

'I never _planned_ to see her dead! I knew she was important!' Amelia Rye continued.

'Childish squabbling,' the Enlightener intervened, shutting them up. 'As I was saying, this girl is important to Matt Rye?'

' _Yes!'_ All of them answered slightly irritably.

'Then she simply cannot remain dead.'

The Enlightener pointed his arm towards the corpse, and gold and purple mist danced towards her, surrounding her body in a transparent silk. Her body glowed gold for a moment, but it died down and her body was still unmoving and very dead.

For about a second, that is. No less than that interval of time later, Gaige moved. She rolled onto her side, eyes opening, and began coughing. They weren't vociferous or aggressive coughs; they were the coughs you would have if you drank something and it went down the wrong side of your throat. Nevertheless, it made the Crimson Raider Vault Hunters run to her, and caused the Gemini Vault Hunters (including Caine) to roll their eyes and trudge over at the girl who was no longer dead.

'Ergh…my head hurts,' the Mechromancer complained, completely obliviously. Her complaint elicited laughs from her allies, but Gaige was just confused. 'Why are you all…laughing? And what just happened?'

'Bit of a long story, cúmbila,' Salvador chuckled.

'One that involves punching and shouting!' Brick appended. Among the smiles, Gaige looked around for Matt, her eyes meeting the Enlightener.

'M-Matt?' She inquired hopelessly.

'Um, not quite,' Mordecai told her.

'I am the Enlightener,' he informed her, but this did not clear much up for her. 'Allow me to enlighten you.' His eyes flashed a brighter gold for a second, and the Mechromancer's eyes flashed the same gold in correspondence. Suddenly, she knew.

'You're a…there's gonna be a…and Matt's…' she stammered, trying to process the information the Enlightener was relaying to her.

'Why didn't you just do that right off the bat?' Axton asked him.

'Less grandiose,' the Eridian explicated. 'Eridians are fond of grandiosity.'

'To the point where it borders on impracticality, apparently,' Amelia muttered, although everyone heard her and stared at her. She sighed. 'As I mentioned earlier, the Eridians managed to harness the Infinite. They're the main controllers of it now. Where do you think they disappeared to?

'Ever since I bonded with the Dreamer, they've been giving me instructions to follow. I am strictly unable to disobey them. They've been directing me, but…they didn't inform me of this war or about what they wanted with Matt exactly. They blinded my near-omniscience, limiting it without my awareness.'

'All with good intentions,' the Enlightener ensured. 'You became quite a force to be reckoned with; I apologise, but, we had to keep a lid on you. We could not afford things to get out of hand.'

'I'd rather not feel controlled.'

'You have free will. There are just guidelines on how you should use it.'

'Was there anything else you wanted?' Lilith interrupted, trying to bring a close to their argument.

'The Anomaly is still required to pass into the Infinite,' the Enlightener explained. 'I must open the portal.' The Eridian held out his hand, and cracks opened across his arm, glowing gold. A golden portal opened in front of him, rupturing space-time within the Infinite. 'The Vault here is located on an isolated sector of the Infinite. This portal leads to a higher echelon of the Infinite. Come, Amelia Rye, we must –'

He was interrupted by a gunshot. A bullet hit him, but it disintegrated instantly when it hit him. The Enlightener didn't seem too impressed. He closed the portal.

Commander James Sharp trudged into the arena, unconstrained, with his arm outstretched and a gun in his hand. Behind and beside him stood Two, Three, Four, Five and Six in their standard uniforms. The rest of his personal taskforce piled in from the entrance to the Vault, charging along the self-constructing path to join their commander. An entire army formed behind him, but still the Enlightener did not flinch or waver in concentration.

Within less than a second, the Enlightener disappeared into a purple mist, and reappeared in front of the impromptu militia.

'Commander James Sharp: you just tried to pick a fight with the most powerful being in the universe,' the Enlightener addressed degradingly. 'Are you sure that's a good idea?' Sharp's eyes widened.

'Who…who are you?' James stuttered, realising his awful mistake.

'I am the Enlightener,' the Eridian declared. He threw back his task-force against the wall, stretching out a hand. Almost magically, this caused the commander to rise into the air, as an invisible hand began to strangle him with excessive force **. (A/N: Vader style!)** The sounds Commander Sharp emitted as he choked – well, strangling. Choking is what you do when you eat too fast – to death compounded into a grim gargling sound.

'Don't –' Gaige began.

'Kill him?' The Enlightener finished, dropping Commander Sharp to the ground. He took in breath harshly, trying to normalise his breathing. 'I don't see a reason to. As for punishment – now _that's_ a perfect course of action.'

Sharp attempted to get up, but the Enlightener kicked him back, on the chin. He groaned in pain. The commander's task-force got up, realising their mistake, and began running away (apart from the Big Five), but the Eridian merely waved his hand, somewhat dismissively.

In the next second, they weren't there anymore.

They had been deconstructed, atom by atom, into a mist of blue particles. There was no look of pain on their faces; their countenance displayed blissful ignorance, as they showed individual mirth and determination to save their commander. It was fruitless of course, as they disappeared into thin air, as the particles dissipated, scattered to the wind within the Vault.

'You…killed them…' Gaige realised, almost shocked. 'When they were running away!'

'I would rather not complicate things down the line by allowing them to live.' He justified his actions callously, waving a hand dismissively. The Enlightener turned back to James. 'As for _you,_ Commander Sharp, a great deal of recompense is required for your actions.' The Vault Hunters attempted to stop him, but the Enlightener shoved out a hand into the air and sent them skidding back.

'R-recompense?' He asked worriedly.

'Yes.' The Eridian placed a finger on Sharp's forehead, causing him to freeze in absolute fear. His finger glowed gold for a second, then died down.

Sharp staggered back, blinking several times, trying to construct a clear thought. He couldn't. 'What…what did you…?'

'I just shifted around a few neurones in your head,' the Enlightener elucidated. 'You'll find it mildly difficult to strategize without your intelligence now.' Upon hearing this, Sharp turned and curtly ran, aware he had been beaten. This time, the Enlightener let him go.

'Why are you doing all this?' Mordecai demanded.

'Preparation.'

'If you were omniscient then you wouldn't _need_ to prepare,' Caine pointed out. 'You'd already know how to beat what's coming.'

'I'm not omniscient,' the Enlightener corrected. 'The energy within the Infinite is limitless, yes, but how you can harness it – how you can use it – is most certainly not infinite. My knowledge only encompasses the total knowledge of the combined Eridian race. It is their consciousness which I draw from.'

'If you're so smart, why can't you figure out that we're going to _need_ Matt to combat this war you're going on about?' Brick argued.

'I have considered that in fact,' the Eridian replied, sounding almost hurt that it would even be suggested that he would miss such a glaring detail. 'The Anomaly shall return to you, when you require him most. But the Anomaly is an integral part of the Infinite now. Once he succeeds in his purpose, he must return to the dimension. That is not up for debate.'

'Do I at least get to talk to him before he goes?' Gaige hoped. 'I didn't get to say goodbye last time.' The Enlightener stared at her for a moment, contemplating the request for a moment.

'As you wish,' the Enlightener granted, before re-opening the golden portal. His eyes returned to normal, and the cracks in his flesh repaired themselves. The original scars, though, remained untouched.

Matt the Anomaly blinked.

'Matt!' Gaige called, and the Vault Hunter turned to her and smiled blissfully. The Mechromancer ran towards him and Matt joyously embraced him in a hug. They held each other happily.

'Ah, he said he'd bring you back.'

'Here I am!' Gaige excitedly announced. She pulled herself back to look at Matt, but still held onto him. 'You let him possess you to save me?'

'The Enlightener said he could prevent needless deaths and tragedies,' Matt reasoned. 'I wasn't entirely certain how he would do it, but I guess I got excited over the idea. It's something I've always wanted – fair peace, pure and fair in nature. War, battles, aggressive conflict: it destroyed my planet. The idea was too tempting, I admit. Plus, I had no reason to distrust him.'

' _Or_ to trust him…' the Mechromancer ruminated.

'I just wanted to be optimistic,' Matt admitted. 'Besides, what reason would he have to lie?' Gaige was about to interrupt him, however he stopped her. 'I _saw_ it, Gaige. He wasn't lying when he said there was a war coming. A war to end all wars. The Enlightener told me he could help end all conflicts, but this one is inevitable. People _will_ die; I can't stop it. I can only lessen the effects.'

'How?' Lilith asked, hearing their conversation.

'By warning you about it,' he replied. 'You ought to expand the Crimson Raider forces. As it is now, the Crimson Raiders will be quashed. I don't want that to happen.'

'Any suggestions?' Axton asked.

'Try looking at Opportunity. That's a good start. You have a lot of time though – maybe going off-world is a possibility.'

'We must be stronger / To combat the war coming / So we'll be ready,' Zer0 outlined clearly. Matt nodded.

'I'm sorry I can't give you all the details,' the Anomaly guiltily apologized. He let go of Gaige, turned to Amelia, and sighed remorsefully. 'We have to go now, Amelia. We don't have a choice.'

'Before you go…' Gaige addressed. Matt turned to her and she immediately leant forward and kissed him deeply. Eventually, she came up for air and leant back, tears accumulating in her eyes. 'If not gonna see you for a while…I…I might as well have something to remember you by.'

'I can do you one better,' Matt offered, plucking his ECHOear out from his ear and handing to her. Gaige froze for a second, unable to process the memento. Helpfully, somewhat, he placed it in her palm and closed her fingers around it for her. 'Take it. It's yours now.'

'I don't…'

'It's got a Class-14 Heads-Up Display, and a constant wire-laser connection to the ECHOnet. It allows for an active live video recording using a holographic display, a multi-petapixel camera and DirectC-22 sound drivers. It should allow you to record those ECHOnet streams of yours.'

Gaige laughed, waving off her tears.

'How did you know I did those?'

'I saw some of the ECHOs in your workshop,' Matt recalled. 'I think your brand new ECHOear will allow you to produce better quality ECHO streams.'

'I don't know what to say...' Gaige mused aloud, tears almost reforming in her eyes.

'You don't have to say anything,' Matt softly ensured. He sighed. 'I have to go now, though.'

'I thought you wanted to rid the world of disasters and conflict?' Maya mentioned, catching the Anomaly's attention. He took a deep intake of breath through his nose.

'No,' he concluded. 'Wars and disasters...they may be terrible, but we need them, just as much as happiness or love. We have to determine what defines them, and the only we can do that is through experiencing tragedies. It's awful philosophy at face value, but I believe that all things happen for a reason, in particular that we have tragedies to test our love, and strengthen our bonds, so that when we do finally experience those sweet moments of happiness, we can experience them as a whole.'

Matt looked out to his friends. Maya and Lilith gave him a knowing nod; Brick crossed his arms and hummed somewhat proudly; Mordecai and Zer0 nodded; Caine hummed with minor contempt at the loss of his rival; and Axton stepped forward and put a friendly hand on his shoulder.

'Until the next one,' the Commando warmly accepted. The Anomaly nodded, and held out a hand to his sister.

Amelia's eyes widened for a second, but she nodded fervently. His sister ran toward him, taking his hand. She felt the Anomaly's sturdy, marred fingers encapsulating around her younger, smoother digits. His palm was warm, ridged and uneven, but it possessed a hospitability about it that kept her holding onto it.

She breathed deeply, and exhaled loudly, catching her brother's attention.

'You scared, Amy?' Matt mocked light-heartedly.

'I've never been to such a higher part of the Infinite,' Amelia replied. Matt looked at her, not quite believing it. 'What? I'm not a scared little girl, you know.'

'Well, you know, the last time we spoke, you were!' The Anomaly joked, causing Amelia to elbow him. 'Right. Sorry.'

' _Dying_ isn't something to joke about, you know.'

'I know. Er…let's just…' Matt stumbled. 'Sh-should we just go through the portal?'

' _Good idea,'_ Amelia agreed candidly.

They walked into the golden portal, and it closed behind them. The golden light disappeared, no longer shining upon the remaining Vault Hunters, leaving them behind. It crossed their minds how a person who branded himself as just another "someone else" had grown to be like no one else they had ever met before.

'So…Brick,' Mordecai addressed, breaking the silence. 'You got the Buzzards waiting? 'Cuz, we…kinda…need a ride back to Sanctuary.'

Brick laughed wholeheartedly. 'Gooooood question.'

* * *

Matt and Amelia stood before a court, or something like that. The Enlightener stood as the judge, apparently, although he didn't wear the traditional garb. Instead, he was wearing Eridian armour, although his very thin, somewhat disproportionate form fit unevenly under it. Surrounding the Enlightener was a jury of other Eridians, all differently coloured and patterns on their skin.

'Anomaly,' the Enlightener addressed. 'On behalf of all Eridians, I thank you for saving the universe. I also thank you for allowing me to convey my message.'

'You don't need to thank me for that,' Matt waved off. 'Now: tell me more about the oncoming war.'

'I cannot reveal much,' the Eridian somewhat remorsefully confessed. 'But I _can_ tell you this: the scope of it is far beyond your imagination. The winner is already supposed.'

'You think you know who's going to win?' Amelia inquired perplexedly.

'Yes. This winner is no one. Both sides will suffer great losses. Both sides will lose.'

'What's the other side?' Matt asked.

'Another race, completely equal to our own. They will fight in the galaxy itself, and no world shall be left untouched by their wrath. There is one thing I can guarantee you should be certain of.'

'That being…?'

'The Eridians are coming.'

And they weren't the only race that would come. There would be another. One with Guardians. And shiny shards of cerise.

* * *

 **And with that, I cease typing the story and begin my epilogue-esque Author's Notes at the bottom.**

 **I know that I said I'd write an epilogue, which was originally going to extend the final scene with Matt and Amelia in the Infinite, but I decided to leave that to sequel. I didn't want to reveal this much.**

 **So…I feel like I just dropped a bunch of stuff on you. The Infinite was something I've been sitting on since Gaige's conversation with Amelia in her head during** ** _Deathmark_** **(Chapter 25) and I feel like it makes sense.**

 **I always wondered where Sirens actually got their powers from, and why they were given to them in the first place, so I thought the Infinite was a good enough explanation. It's a dimension of pure energy, where the Eridians were able to transfer their consciousness to escape an incoming threat (more on that in the sequel) and thus gained control of it. This explains how Eridium can charge the Vault Key (and empower Sirens) since it's calcified Infinite energy so directly linked to the Vault.**

 **They'd been harnessing it since long before then, though, and it's the very reason they can do stuff that appears to break the laws of physics. It's what allows them to reanimate Terramorphous, or Crawmerax, although the reanimates are not as powerful as the original. The Vaults of course are meant to trap creatures in the Infinite, too. Why, though? You'll have to wait to find out!**

* * *

 **Also, user** ** _silentslender_** **– did you** ** _really_** **think I would** ** _actually_** **kill off Gaige, one of my most favourite Vault Hunters?** ** _No!_** **Although, I was prepared to do it if I** ** _really_** **wanted to. Just don't blow me up. Seriously.**

* * *

 **And now that Sharp has lost his intelligence, he might rethink his life choices. Although, it pains me to have to kill off Two and Three, who I really enjoyed writing. But it was necessary for plot. Maybe they'll come back. Depends what you think.**

 **And the whole Watcher spiel about a war coming now seems more relevant. I purposefully left out the part where the Eridian said they would need all the Vault Hunters they could get, since I suppose I needed there to be** ** _some_** **reason for him to show up other than to save Athena.**

 **If a sequel** ** _does_** **come, Rhys, Fiona, Aurelia, Athena, Jack's doppelganger (maybe) and Springs (because why not?) will probably be in it – but juggling all the characters can be very hard to do if you're not a good enough writer. It was hard balancing the current number of Vault Hunters plus my own ones – you might've noticed Krieg hardly says a thing in this chapter and not much in the last.**

 **So I won't include** ** _every_** **Vault Hunter in** ** _everything_** **that happens in the sequel (again, if I do write it).**

 **These notes are getting exuberantly long – this chapter just became the longest one by default due to all these notes. If there's anything else to say, I guess I will just have to make a separate chapter for it.**

 **It was a ton of fun writing this story and I hope everyone enjoyed it – and that it was a considerable addition to Borderlands fanfiction!**

 **This is WyronX22, ending this ECHO broadcast.**


	36. Sequel Prologue

**So it goes!**

 **No, I have not forgotten to write the sequel to Someone Else. In fact, I started planning it out and writing it in December. I haven't _just_ finished it or anything, it's just I have been writing and planning ahead so I wouldn't fall behind. I know exactly where this is going, and where all the plot threads are leading to, whereas I didn't at first in Someone Else.**

 **This chapter's a bit short, but too long to put in chapter one itself. It's about as long as Chapter One was in Someone Else (Critical Ascension). These chapters will get quite long as time goes on, although they tend to vary from 4k all the way up to 7k words.**

 **It's only meant to be introductory anyway.**

 **This is the prologue to the story, I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

 **Prologue**

* * *

Peace.

It seemed such a feeble concept now. It was persistent, but was only defined by its antithesis. Its opposite was enough for whole races to run and hide, run and hide because the great monster was coming – war.

As horrible as it was, peace could only exist if war occurred to create it. Conflict between opposing forces created tragedy, and it was that tragedy that prompted both sides to negotiate peace. If there were no wars, everything would seem perfect at first. However, humans do not accept the idea of perfect in the real world – it doesn't feel right to them. Therefore, the whole system of civilisation would collapse in on itself, as even petty disagreements between many were non-existent.

So when the Anomaly ultimately decided not to end all conflicts, I was not surprised. Anyone would have killed for the chance to stop tragedy, but eventually the thought comes to mind that, despite its innately unspeakable circumstance, we need tragedy and loss in our lives.

Amelia Rye, the Anomaly's sister, claimed to me that we require it to be human, and make human choices. I considered this for a moment, before exclaiming to her, "Blasphemy! Humans destroy lives just as much as they cherish them!" She looked at me, disgusted, and replied, "Humans _end_ lives to _save_ lives."

It sounded preposterous, quite honestly. How could the maintenance of one life justify the termination of another? I did not see her logic, but, then again, I am not human myself.

However, I spent a great deal of my time inside a human's head – the Anomaly, or, as he designates himself, Matt Rye. I could observe his choices all laid out in front of me, and many them _did_ indeed display the "human" characteristic Amelia Rye described to me.

I call this characteristic the "Human Factor", for I have so far seen this factor as the most evident throughout humans. Eridians, and multiple other races, show the Human Factor as well; we all would like to salvage our own civilisations in the midst of war, and the only method would have been to fight back.

This Human Factor, of being ready and willing to sacrifice one's own life to save others, is especially peculiar in Matt Rye. While I always planned for him to become a physical link within the Infinite – ever since he survived the Genisys Project – I did not anticipate how willing he would be to do it, if it meant saving countless lives. The Anomaly was well aware that the covenant was an unbreakable bond, which would limit his future prospects, but nevertheless he still did it.

The Human Factor is measured in points. 0 – 50 is selfish, 50 – 100 is considered average, 100 – 150 is seen as moralised above average, and 200+ is seen as utterly selfless. Matt Rye scores 320 on that scale, with his romantic interest scoring just below that, at 290.

I created the Human Factor Scale not just to observe human behaviour, however. I needed to know the degree of this Factor within the main participants of the oncoming Great Monsoon war, so when life-changing choices are made, I can determine the conduciveness of the deliberators.

I speak of the Great Monsoon because it will define all other conflicts – past, present or future. Desirably so, the outcome may lead to peace, but the cost of that peace may be so exuberantly high that it would seem redundant. Put simply – so many will die that the peace that follows will be unstable, leading to more war.

Aforementioned, war is the glue between intervals of peace, in a sense. Peace cannot exist without prior conflict, so that is why I wonder constantly whether or not attempting to prevent the Great Monsoon, or its corresponding outcome, is truly effective or even possible. If a ruler sends a negotiator to ease tension between kingdoms, does he risk stagnation between them?

Furthermore, I wonder if the Human Factor would provide aid in lessening the effects of the so-called Great Monsoon. The Anomaly's determination to save others would hopefully increase likelihood of winning. At what cost, though? And the Vault Hunter has his limits. Everyone does.

My fellow Eridians doubt my decision to use the Anomaly as the flagship to the war. They believe _I_ should do it, since I possess the combined intelligence of numerous Eridians, plus my nature as the one of the oldest Eridians in existence. However, whilst I understand their logic, Matt Rye is destined to become the most powerful being in the universe. He already did, at one point – when I possessed him. His initially artificial connection to the Infinite has since become stronger than any Siren's to date, and his half-human nature also means that he does not risk losing his humanity in the process.

Allying with the soon-to-be most powerful being in all the dimensions doesn't seem like a bad idea. No, he has not reached his potential yet, but who is to say he won't?

Obviously, though, I will lead a great deal of the conflict, and exist as his advisor. As Head Scientist and Philosopher, my job is wisdom and advice. There is no promise that any of my efforts will succeed, however.

'Enlightener?' An ambient voice called up to me. I looked down at my subject, atop my ruling chair, surrounding by a Greek-like pantheon of other Eridians. Unsurprisingly, I now stood in the presence of Matt Rye, and his sister, who stood behind him.

'What is it you desire, Anomaly?' I replied casually. 'Or do you wish to waste my time?' Matt was taken aback at this, his brown eyebrows raising in shock.

'Er…no, of course not.' He spoke as if I blasphemed regularly. Of course, I did not.

'Proceed.'

'Pandora,' the Anomaly said. 'It's going to be used as your main base of operations.'

'Indeed it is. Your point?'

'I think I need to be there for that.'

'Oh, do you?' I, rather audaciously, remarked. 'It's been four years, in their dimension, and you decide _now_ is the time to make your grandiose return?'

'I'm not stupid, Enlightener,' Matt angrily sneered. 'I've done my waiting. The Great Monsoon is almost at hand, and you've been keeping me here until the time was right for me to come back. I can feel the disturbance in the Infinite, _they_ are coming back soon.' **(A/N: There has been a disturbance in the Force!)** I rose an eyebrow. 'You know who I'm talking about. If you don't do something _now_ , there will be _serious_ consequences for your misjudgement.'

'I was not aware that _you_ were a foreteller of our fate,' I sarcastically derided him. 'You were placed here under your own choices! Do not tell _me_ when you get to leave!'

'I'm not scared of you. I've been inside your head. You're just as scared as the rest of us. Let me ease your fear. You said yourself that I may be the key to turning the tide in this Great Monsoon. So why don't you _let_ me?'

I hissed at him, almost territorially. This insolent child believed he matched the wisdom of some of the most intelligent Eridians ever to have lived. Ridiculous.

I turned my head to Amelia Rye.

'And what is your deliberation, Dreamer?' I demanded of her. She looked up at me with defiance. These last four Midgardian years had definitely matured her mind some. **(A/N: Midgard is just another name for Earth. Like Norse mythology.)** She wasn't a teenager anymore.

'I agree with Matt,' Amelia answered. 'He's been gone long enough. You don't want all the prophesied loss, yet _here_ you are, allowing it to happen!'

'Your deal with us is all-encompassing,' I reminded them. 'You should not have accepted it if you did not think it to be so.'

'I knew it was,' the Anomaly ensured. 'But I _assumed_ that you had the foresight to know that not allowing me to return could be catastrophic!'

'You are not allowed to fully leave the Infinite, I hope you know that,' I responded. 'Lest you forget, without a suitable human host, _your_ universe would collapse, which would _also_ result in the collapse of the Infinite!'

'Amelia is half Infinite energy,' the Anomaly pointed out. 'If she is beside me, I have a complete connection to the Infinite. One half by my Siren nature, the _other_ by her.'

'That is an impromptu alternative. It would not last forever; you would be required to return to the Infinite.'

'That's fine!' Matt exclaimed at me. 'Just as long as I have enough time to prevent this incoming apocalypse, or at the very least, prevent the outcome!'

I had to consider this with my fellow Eridians.

 _This seems like the only plausible option,_ one claimed in my head.

'It was indeed decided that the Anomaly would return at some point,' the Teller, one of the Eridians sitting at our meeting, said.

'His method may indeed succeed in our favour,' Esog the Watcher chimed in. 'I did not prevent the execution of the Vault Hunter known as Athena for no reason. I did not interact with the events on Elpis for _no reason_. It would be foolish not to send in our most powerful asset.'

 _Desperate times correspond to desperate measures,_ one of the Eridian personas advised me in my head.

Matt's tone could be resolved later. We had a war to win. Sending in our most powerful soldier could be effective, but sending him in right out the gate could also lead to failure in the long run. If our enemy is aware of the threat almost immediately, they could adapt to it. And this particular opposing side could _definitely_ adapt to the likes of Matt Rye.

I found myself concerned at the havoc the Anomaly could wreak, if he were allowed to roam free. While I do not wish to worry myself too much with his wellbeing, if even the slightest aspects were screwed up – for lack of a better term – then the Eridians would almost certainly be wiped out by his foolishness.

Since he is only twenty-five, the Anomaly would definitely possess some level of immaturity that an over a trillion-year-old entity like myself would not. Hence, I would have to oversee the Vault Hunter's actions, lest they get out of hand. However, the Anomaly is known for his part-recklessness, and it has so far yielded him satisfactory results – mainly in that it hasn't killed him yet.

This discussion was one-sided. I seemed to be the only one present who saw the disadvantage of sending in the Anomaly so early. However, the Vault Hunter would likely not back down until he received what he wanted, so that he could help save lives.

Curse that Human Factor!

Sometimes the selflessness of humans like Matt Rye was annoying. He would give up his life if it meant salvation without a moment's notice, throwing caution to the wind and embracing recklessness. He was doing so without effort, and it seemed as though the Human Factor had infected some of my allied Eridians, and increased its prevalence within them, which many could say clouded their judgement and inhibiting their logical thinking.

I did not suggest to the Watcher to rescue the Gladiator, nor did I sanction it. Rather, she chose to do it by herself, believing that the Vault Hunters required more information on the Great Monsoon. Once Esog returned from her deed, she claimed that the Gladiator's execution would be great foolishness, as it would merely be reducing the military force needed to combat the war.

It was most likely the Human Factor that drove her latter decision. Nonetheless, it was an advantageous choice, despite the risks involved – for example, revealing our presence to the enemy may prompt them into war earlier than expected.

The Watcher has been the main observer of their actions over the past four years, and even before then, so I trusted her judgement when she told me that we required all the Vault Hunters we could feasibly obtain. She also has knowledge on some future events, more so than me, so it would be foolish not to listen to my fellow Eridian.

However, I have not been shackled by the Human Factor as excessively as my peers. My ability to view things objectively is an essential trait of my being, as possessing multiple minds would be overbearing if all of them were subjective. Therefore, I do not worry myself with insignificant details or express favouritism towards others, so it does not seem to me that I can be selfish in any capacity.

Despite this, I find myself conflicted. If I were to think of things objectively, then giving one's own life to save others is a simple option. From an objective viewpoint, no one life is technically worth more than another, so one can be given up to save another. If you were to die to save millions, it would be an obvious choice, as one life is not worth more than several million. But destroying one life to better another's seemed illogical since neither could be worth more than the other.

So, from that area, I can understand Matt's want to sacrifice his own life – however, I know that the Anomaly is anything but objective. He is not selfish, but his emotions take full throttle over logic, whilst the latter dilemma requires only logic.

That is why, when faced with the demand of Matt Rye to send him back to his original domain, I considered whether logic here is more considerable over emotion and subjectivity.

'Very well,' I eventually decided. 'You may return to the Earthly domain. You _must_ come back to the Infinite once the ordeal is over with, and _that_ is an ultimatum.' I watched as the Anomaly breathed a sigh of exorbitant relief.

'Thank you, Enlightener,' he acknowledged, his sister nodding to me.

'Do not question my judgement again,' I forcefully demanded. 'And do _not_ believe that this… _Human_ _Factor_ …has influenced me in any way.'

'I wasn't suggesting that,' he replied humbly, aware that I could end him at a moment's notice.

'Send my regards to the Mechromancer,' I said with mirth. Matt nodded at me again, before turning around and leaving the throne room.

The Watcher, the Teller, and numerous other Eridians all turned to look at me, with a telepathic beam of surprise and acknowledgement.

'That was a wise decision, Enlightener,' the Teller assured me. I looked at him with a frown that quietened him instantly.

'I do not wish to make foolish decisions,' I responded, almost sounding hurt at the implication that I required an assurance.

'We are aware of that,' Esog told me, quite confidently. 'But we are all afraid of the Great Monsoon. It is difficult for us to make informed decisions ourselves, and I am not sure the amalgamation of the greatest Eridian minds would fare so well either.'

'You needn't concern yourself with my leadership abilities,' I told her, rather aggressively. 'I am quite competent.'

'We know that too,' the Wanderer, another Eridian, said. 'But competency has its limits.'

'That, I am certain, you are accurate about,' I agreed.

* * *

Amelia seemed more excited than Matt.

'I wonder what it'll be like!' She exclaimed. 'I haven't had a physical presence within our home domain for years!'

'Just be thankful I found a way for it to be possible,' Matt retorted, annoyed at her overenthusiasm.

'Well, you're using some of your own DNA to give me a physical body,' Amelia commented, almost obviously. 'Of course I'm thankful, you dummy! I'm just excited! It's been _so_ long since I've felt the ground beneath my shoes, or the wind on my face! To finally have the mind of a human again!'

The Infinite had changed Amelia. It had turned her into a walking meat puppet, basically, and her mind was not entirely her own. She didn't think like a human anymore, nor act like one, until Matt came around. He had aided her in recuperation, restoring her mind to her original state of upbeat innocence.

As a result, she still behaved like an innocent child, since she had been raised that way up until her death, and not so much like a twenty-year-old. Even though, undoubtedly, she had grown more mature over the years. As shown with the Enlightener, when in the present of formality, she behaved confident and serious, but was incredibly ecstatic when not in polite company.

'Just stick close to me and –' Matt began.

' _Don't wonder off…_ ' Amelia finished. 'I'm not a little kid anymore. I can fend for myself, you know.'

'Yes, but you have been gone from the world for a long time. You don't know what the real world is like.'

'Four earth years is enough to be out of touch for _you too,_ you know,' Amelia snapped, although not too angry.

'I know what I'm doing,' Matt insisted. 'Besides if we run into Mom and Dad –'

' _Ooh_ , I completely forgot about them!' His sister interrupted. 'We _have_ to go meet them!' The Anomaly sighed.

'No, we don't.'

'C'mon!' She pleaded. ' _I know_ they didn't raise us well, by my being gone _must've_ prompted them to do better, right?' Matt gave no response. 'Right?'

'They did _something_ alright,' he muttered, but Amelia still heard it. 'After you died…Mom and Dad disowned me.' Amelia's eyes suddenly went dark, like her innocence had just been stamped on.

'W-what?' His sister stammered.

'I didn't tell you because…I didn't think you would be coming back with me,' the Anomaly revealed. 'When you died, our parents kicked me off Darios. They sent me away with a rocket ship to Atrios-6. That was where I met Aurora. The Gemini Corporation lent us a home, Central Capricorn Galactica, where we were given specialised training for certain missions.'

'Th-they…gave you up?' Amelia tried to process. He nodded, but his sister shook her head in disbelief. 'Just like that?'

'Our parents weren't very nice people,' Matt justified. 'So no, I _don't_ want to talk to them again. I would rather talk with the girl I love over the parents that never loved _us_.'

'Well…you may have Gaige…' Amelia began, tears forming in her eyes. 'But…there's no one left to love _me…_ ' Immediately, the Anomaly went to her and held her in a tight hug, letting her cry into his arms.

'Now that's where you're wrong,' he comforted her. ' _I_ love you. You're my sister, so I care for you. I'm not about to _leave_ you.'

Amelia sniffed, acknowledging his uplifting words. He was right. She still had him.

'Thank you, Mattie,' Amelia thanked him wholeheartedly. 'I don't know what I'd do without you. You've always been there for me.'

'And I always will be,' the Anomaly promised, although even he knew that was a steep promise. 'Now, what's say we make our miraculous return?' His sister laughed.

'Sure,' she agreed, as the portal opened in front of them. His sister let go of him and suddenly ran towards it. 'Whoever's last is a rotten egg!' Matt sniggered.

'Oh, _it's on now._ '

* * *

 **So that's the prologue to the sequel, which will be rather imaginatively called "No One Else." One of the most enjoyable parts of this chapter was writing it mostly from the point of view of the Enlightener. The way he thinks is completely alien, since he _is_ an alien, but even to his fellow Eridians – as he is an amalgamation of multiple consciousness.**

 **Anyway, this is sort of a notice that chapter one will be coming out soon, but it's against the rules to write a non-fiction chapter with no story in, so I figured I'd deliver you a prologue of the story to come.**

 **I would post this in the actual story, but that would mess up the numbering at the top of the page, so I thought it best to put it in the original. That way, anyone not following me but this story specifically knows that the sequel is coming.**

 **I won't be posting it immediately, although it will be soon. I will just edit it a few times and set a schedule for myself for uploads. Though, I have school all the time so I won't always be able to stick to it.**

 **Anyways, I'll see you avid readers soon!**


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